The Country 26/06/25: Hamish Marr talks to Jamie Mackay

New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy joins us to tell us what he actually does when he’s not arable farming in Methven.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So here's a bloke I caught up with at the
Primary Industry New Zealand Conference over the past couple of
days in christ Church, New Zealand's Special Agricultural Trade Envoid
meth ben Arable Farmer Hamish Mah. Yesterday you were standing
in your suit eating sausage rolls and rubbing shoulders with
the GLITTERATZI of New Zealand Agriculture Hamish, You've come back

(00:23):
down to earth. Today you're standing out on the wind
in the rain with your digger trying to fix a
burst water pipe.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah. I had a phone call last night Jamie. You
say there's water running down the road and we need
to fix it. And I'm the guy that has to
fix it. So that's today's job.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Now. You were on a panel discussion with Richard Allen,
who's the kind of almost i'd call him the two
I see at Fonterra. He's the president of Global Markets Ingredients,
Tim Mackle, acting Chief Operating Officer for ZESPRI. Of course
Tim was formerly Dairy en Z Thomas McDonald from the
Sheep Spring Sheep Milk Company and Susannah Jessop from Asia

(01:00):
New Zealand Foundation. And your topic was New Zealand trade
and exports in a volatile world. And I know you
probably don't want to go there, but did you write
your speech before Trump bombed Iron? No?

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Not at all, No, not at all, because my message
generally is how farmers should respond to what's going on
around the world and things in My response, generally, Jamie,
is always the same messages, and it's just to keep
focusing on what we do well, which is efficient, efficient farming,
and always looking for the efficiency and what we do.

(01:31):
So generally there has been my message regardless.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Well, you can only control the controllables in farming, and
that's what makes such a tough gig.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You can't do anything about the weather, as you found
out today, you can't do anything about international geopolitical blow
ups like we've got at the moment. You can't do
anything about commodity prices, and you can't do anything about
exchange rates or even interest rates. So you know, there's
so many uncontrolled rollables in a farming operation.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
That's one hundred percent, right, Jamie, And we just have
to focus on being the regular and reliable partner to
all of the people that we're exporting to. And one
thing I constantly think about in this role in farming.
Is the realization a few years back that we export
ninety five percent of what we produce, so we are

(02:25):
reliant on our markets for our well being. Most other
countries that we deal with it is reversed. They export
their surplus whereas we export everything else. We export everything
and keep the surplus. So we have to keep fund
and center of just being or delivering sorry, what the

(02:46):
rest of the world wants, which is good, wholesome, reliable product,
and we have a very very good name in doing
so over many many years.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Do we get value for money with you sending you
all around the world as a special agricultural trade in
voy Hamish Your predecessor mel Pulton no disrespect, but she
was hamstrung by COVID during her tenure. She couldn't go anywhere.
But I think of the like Sir Mike Peterson was
very active, Malcolm Bailey, the late Alistair Poulson, What a

(03:14):
great bloke he was. So what do you guys actually do?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Look, I think there's definitely value in this because we
have a very very unique farming system in this country,
rotational grazing systems. Our animals are outside all year. The
rest of the world doesn't operate the way we do,
and so a lot of my role, as well as

(03:39):
working alongside our market access teams, is actually just to
explain New Zealand farming and to explain that, you know,
we can't threaten markets because we're a small country, we
have a finite amount of animals and output. Don't think
of New Zealand as a threat. Think of New Zealand
as adding value to your operations, and that the way

(04:02):
we do things on farm may look, excuse me, may look
very different from what everyone else does, but the outcomes
are all the same. So a lot of a lot
of my job, Jamie, is to explain New Zealand farming
in an authentic way.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Okay, I take it you're not heeding the call from
the likes of ground Swell and Winston to get out
of the Paris Agreement.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I think, Jamie, that's a pretty dangerous game for us
to be playing. And I come back to the point
I said right at the start that we export a
huge amount of our product, and we're renowned. We're renowned
to being team players, but we're also renowned to being
efficient players. But I think but part of part of

(04:44):
us being on the team as it were, is the
way we have got ourselves into markets. So for us
to say we're going to withdraw from the Paris Accord,
to me means that we're sending a signal to our
markets that we don't take the record ciment seriously. So
I personally think we just shouldn't be going there.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Hamishma New Zealand's special agricultural trade in boys standing out
and rather in Clement Day and Canterbury batten down the hatches.
I know you're in for some wind. Thanks for some
of your time and good luck. I know you'll be
attending the far conference next week for arable farmers yep.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I well might look forward to seeing you there, Jamie.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
If you're coming, no, I just need I need to
lick my wounds. I'm going down to Riversdale, just down
the road from your father in law's place, for a
rugby reunion. I don't want to go anywhere next week,
See you later.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
See you Jamie's. It's nice to chet