May 28, 2025 • 7 mins
KPMG’s Global Head of Agribusiness yesterday released his 2025 Agribusiness Agenda, sharing the results of its annual Agribusiness Leaders Priority Survey, a key resource for industry leaders and influencers.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This used to be a hardy annual for me at
field days it was the KPMG breakfast. And at that
said breakfast, the global head of Agribusiness, En Proudford would
release his annual agribusiness agenda. And you've jumped the gun
this year. You released it yesterday in Palmi North at
the air Tipu Farming Conference. Why was that?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I suppose we wanted to give people a chance to
read it and think about it a bit before field dates,
so you know, rather than people listen to the messages
and then get on with their field day's days, which
can be very busy, it was much more about actually
read it and maybe it can start to feature in
more of the conversations at the field dates.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, that's your agribusiness agenda. It doesn't suit my agenda.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
En.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That was breakfast for me on a Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Unfortunately, there's plenty of other options.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I think I think there are. That was totally tongue
in check. Okay, Look, you've released in summary ten talking
points or ten key finding from the twenty twenty five agenda,
and this is kind of deja vu all over again.
The number one is biosecurity. It remains the top priority
for the fifteenth year running. Ian This is getting a
(01:13):
bit boring.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is boring, but I suppose that what it does
say is we know if something goes wrong in a
biosecurity space. It's fundamental to the sector of the impact,
but it's fundamental to the country as well. I think
the positives that came out of the conversations this year
were that, you know, we are making progress. So you know,
we've made progress on TB, We've made progress on microplasmal
(01:36):
profoss and we've had you know, the community rally round
to respond to the fruit flies and the avian influenza
that we've had incursions during the year. So the messages
you know, we beat this thing by collaborating, we beat
this thing by using technology. We just need to make
sure that we keep staying the course and doing the
(01:57):
work to keep ourselves ahead of it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, and Buy and Large GMPI is doing an excellent
job there. Are going to give them a pat on
the back. Of course, this agri Business Agenda comes about
by you talking or drawing on the insights of almost
two hundred industry leaders. Coming in at number four, I'm
going to jump down to number four because I thought
this might be higher on the rankings list. Trade and
(02:19):
supply chain resilience are critical with global markets in a flux,
and I'm thinking with Trump's tariffs and everything that's going
on in the world geo politically, this might have rated higher.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So if you look at the individual rankings, you know,
getting new agreements with key countries is the second highest
priority for industry leaders, so really focused on that and
then the overall trade positioning. A lot more talk about
international markets. So if you go back two years ago,
really we were Everything we were talking about was internal.
(02:54):
It was about the fatigue, it was about the stress,
it was about getting people across the border, and we
really had forgotten that we're actually producing food for the
world to eat. I think that's completely changed around this year,
and you know, there's much more focus on well, we
need to be able to sell to the highest value
customers around the world. We need to do the work
to find those customers, and we need to understand what's
(03:16):
important to them. So, you know, I think a lot
more focus than we've seen in recent times on markets.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Ranking number two. Climate resilience is back and focus or
should that be back in fashion in I guess after
Gabrielle that was a real reminder a couple of years ago.
It slipped away, but last year but then why it
goes again.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, so last year it fell to forty first out
forty first in terms of the individual priorities in the survey.
Definitely back up this year. I suppose the key message
that we've got in around climate and resilience is actually,
let's think about this not as an anchor about cost,
but think about it actually about how it's an opportunity
(03:58):
and you know, what we do to monetize sustainability, monetize
what we're already doing in most of our farming systems,
which is world class, and get paid for that. And
you know, we're starting to see the success from that.
You can look at what silver Ferns are doing with
the you know the nature of positive beef products. You
can look at the deals that Fonterra have done with
(04:21):
Nesle and Mars, all of that suggesting you know, if
we if we do amplify our environmental story and tell
it really well internationally, we can different our products and
get a premium. So I think, you know, thinking about
how we make ourselves more resilient is just good business.
But if we can telegreat story around being more resilient
(04:42):
and get paid for it, it becomes really big business.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And in and I've heard all this before one hundred times,
tell me something out of this report that will surprise me.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The biggest surprise for me was probably the ranking that
got given to the We asked the question about the
banking review and whether the government should intervene in determining
how the banks lend, and that's scored the lowest scores
we have ever seen in the survey over the last
fifteen years, scoring between three and four. And I think
(05:14):
what it says is ultimately the industry leaders believe the
banks are acting in a commercial manner and what they
want to see is actually the time being spent on
enabling the sector to move forward rather than focusing on
internal issues.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
One to finnishean and I'm going to having a bit
of a poke here just because a feeling in a
mischievous moody and key findings from the twenty five agenda,
we've ranked them one to ten. Now number ten, there's
a call to lead with curiosity. What the hell does
that mean? That's management gobled, do you dook?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, it's about being prepared to not step away from
the hard conversations. And I think that you know, there
is a bit of a trend see at the moment
that we're not wanting to talk about say managed retreat
or moving, you know, having to move businesses out from
where they've currently been operating because it just doesn't make
(06:12):
sentence to be there with the climate any longer. And
we're letting some of those conversations go down the road.
Most farm transitions another example of that, where they can
be really hard conversations and we've just not faced into them.
So what we're saying is actually success in the long
term means that we've got to make sure we're focusing
on the things that are that the fundamental shifts in
(06:35):
society as opposed to the shocks. You know, the shocks
are things like Trump's tariff announcements because they change every day.
The fundamental shifts are things like climate change, are things
like geopolitical realignment of countries. And if we're focusing on
those long term trends, and we're asking ourselves and curious about,
you know, what is important versus what's not important? What
(06:58):
are why is something happening, How is it happening, what's
its consequences? You know, if we all take a bit
of time every day to do a bit of thinking,
I think we'll go further faster.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Ian proud Fort, KPMG Global Head of Agary Business just
reminds me to be curious again next time when we chat.
I'll see you at field days.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Thank you, Jamie. It's always good to talk and there's
always plenty of questions.
This used to be a hardy annual for me at
field days it was the KPMG breakfast. And at that
said breakfast, the global head of Agribusiness, En Proudford would
release his annual agribusiness agenda. And you've jumped the gun
this year. You released it yesterday in Palmi North at
the air Tipu Farming Conference. Why was that?
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I suppose we wanted to give people a chance to
read it and think about it a bit before field dates,
so you know, rather than people listen to the messages
and then get on with their field day's days, which
can be very busy, it was much more about actually
read it and maybe it can start to feature in
more of the conversations at the field dates.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Well, that's your agribusiness agenda. It doesn't suit my agenda.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
En.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
That was breakfast for me on a Wednesday morning.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Unfortunately, there's plenty of other options.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
I think I think there are. That was totally tongue
in check. Okay, Look, you've released in summary ten talking
points or ten key finding from the twenty twenty five agenda,
and this is kind of deja vu all over again.
The number one is biosecurity. It remains the top priority
for the fifteenth year running. Ian This is getting a
(01:13):
bit boring.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It is boring, but I suppose that what it does
say is we know if something goes wrong in a
biosecurity space. It's fundamental to the sector of the impact,
but it's fundamental to the country as well. I think
the positives that came out of the conversations this year
were that, you know, we are making progress. So you know,
we've made progress on TB, We've made progress on microplasmal
(01:36):
profoss and we've had you know, the community rally round
to respond to the fruit flies and the avian influenza
that we've had incursions during the year. So the messages
you know, we beat this thing by collaborating, we beat
this thing by using technology. We just need to make
sure that we keep staying the course and doing the
(01:57):
work to keep ourselves ahead of it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah, and Buy and Large GMPI is doing an excellent
job there. Are going to give them a pat on
the back. Of course, this agri Business Agenda comes about
by you talking or drawing on the insights of almost
two hundred industry leaders. Coming in at number four, I'm
going to jump down to number four because I thought
this might be higher on the rankings list. Trade and
(02:19):
supply chain resilience are critical with global markets in a flux,
and I'm thinking with Trump's tariffs and everything that's going
on in the world geo politically, this might have rated higher.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So if you look at the individual rankings, you know,
getting new agreements with key countries is the second highest
priority for industry leaders, so really focused on that and
then the overall trade positioning. A lot more talk about
international markets. So if you go back two years ago,
really we were Everything we were talking about was internal.
(02:54):
It was about the fatigue, it was about the stress,
it was about getting people across the border, and we
really had forgotten that we're actually producing food for the
world to eat. I think that's completely changed around this year,
and you know, there's much more focus on well, we
need to be able to sell to the highest value
customers around the world. We need to do the work
to find those customers, and we need to understand what's
(03:16):
important to them. So, you know, I think a lot
more focus than we've seen in recent times on markets.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Ranking number two. Climate resilience is back and focus or
should that be back in fashion in I guess after
Gabrielle that was a real reminder a couple of years ago.
It slipped away, but last year but then why it
goes again.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, so last year it fell to forty first out
forty first in terms of the individual priorities in the survey.
Definitely back up this year. I suppose the key message
that we've got in around climate and resilience is actually,
let's think about this not as an anchor about cost,
but think about it actually about how it's an opportunity
(03:58):
and you know, what we do to monetize sustainability, monetize
what we're already doing in most of our farming systems,
which is world class, and get paid for that. And
you know, we're starting to see the success from that.
You can look at what silver Ferns are doing with
the you know the nature of positive beef products. You
can look at the deals that Fonterra have done with
(04:21):
Nesle and Mars, all of that suggesting you know, if
we if we do amplify our environmental story and tell
it really well internationally, we can different our products and
get a premium. So I think, you know, thinking about
how we make ourselves more resilient is just good business.
But if we can telegreat story around being more resilient
(04:42):
and get paid for it, it becomes really big business.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
And in and I've heard all this before one hundred times,
tell me something out of this report that will surprise me.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The biggest surprise for me was probably the ranking that
got given to the We asked the question about the
banking review and whether the government should intervene in determining
how the banks lend, and that's scored the lowest scores
we have ever seen in the survey over the last
fifteen years, scoring between three and four. And I think
(05:14):
what it says is ultimately the industry leaders believe the
banks are acting in a commercial manner and what they
want to see is actually the time being spent on
enabling the sector to move forward rather than focusing on
internal issues.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
One to finnishean and I'm going to having a bit
of a poke here just because a feeling in a
mischievous moody and key findings from the twenty five agenda,
we've ranked them one to ten. Now number ten, there's
a call to lead with curiosity. What the hell does
that mean? That's management gobled, do you dook?
Speaker 2 (05:50):
No, it's about being prepared to not step away from
the hard conversations. And I think that you know, there
is a bit of a trend see at the moment
that we're not wanting to talk about say managed retreat
or moving, you know, having to move businesses out from
where they've currently been operating because it just doesn't make
(06:12):
sentence to be there with the climate any longer. And
we're letting some of those conversations go down the road.
Most farm transitions another example of that, where they can
be really hard conversations and we've just not faced into them.
So what we're saying is actually success in the long
term means that we've got to make sure we're focusing
on the things that are that the fundamental shifts in
(06:35):
society as opposed to the shocks. You know, the shocks
are things like Trump's tariff announcements because they change every day.
The fundamental shifts are things like climate change, are things
like geopolitical realignment of countries. And if we're focusing on
those long term trends, and we're asking ourselves and curious about,
you know, what is important versus what's not important? What
(06:58):
are why is something happening, How is it happening, what's
its consequences? You know, if we all take a bit
of time every day to do a bit of thinking,
I think we'll go further faster.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Ian proud Fort, KPMG Global Head of Agary Business just
reminds me to be curious again next time when we chat.
I'll see you at field days.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Thank you, Jamie. It's always good to talk and there's
always plenty of questions.
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