Farmers Market Taranaki Celebrates 20 Year Anniversary With Pop-Up At Currie St 15 And 22 June
Farmers Market Trust board member Jules van Costello says, 'Farmers markets play a vital role in every local food ecosystem, allowing access to great value local food but also providing a platform that allows small food businesses to thrive and …The Farmers Market Taranaki Trust is proud to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Taranak's local farmers market, coinciding with the market moving temporarily to Currie Street, one of its historic locations, to allow for the set up and celebration of the Winter Festival of Lights and Matariki.
Farmers Market Board Chair, Carl Freeman, says 'It's exciting to celebrate 20 years of Farmers Market Taranaki and it is fitting that we will do this at Currie Street, one of the original homes of the market. We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our stallholders past and present as well as our market coordinators, board members and organisations like the NPDC, Venture Taranaki and Toi Foundation who have supported the market and helped it grow significantly.'
'We'd like to share our appreciation to the stallholders who have attended the market regularly since the very first market; The Blueberry Patch, Mac Snack Organics and Natural Lea, as well as Amadinah, G&J Fish and Carpe Diem Farm, all of whom have attended the market for over ten years.'
Farmers Market Trust board member Jules van Costello says, 'Farmers markets play a vital role in every local food ecosystem, allowing access to great value local food but also providing a platform that allows small food businesses to thrive and succeed.'
Farmers Market Taranaki is held, rain or shine every Sunday from 9am 'till midday and other than the Covid lockdowns and public holidays like Christmas and New Years Day, has never been cancelled because of weather. Since 2005, Farmers Market Taranaki has grown significantly in size and variety, championing the ethos of fresh local food and celebrating the talents of Taranaki growers and artisans. In May 2024, they were awarded 'Farmers Market of the Year' in the annual Organic NZ awards.
Farmers Market Taranaki will be held in Currie Street on Sunday 15 and 22 June from 9am until midday and will return to its home at Huatoki Plaza from Sunday 29 June.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
6 hours ago
- Scoop
Crimson Education Graduates Into The Workforce With New Visa Spin-Out, Concord Visa
Press Release – Crimson Education After guiding more than 3,000 student visa applications through Crimson Education, Concord Visa has been created to support another under-served, high performing group; the ambitious people and high growth startups trying to access new markets. Concord Visa, an immigration consultancy spin-out from Crimson Education, has emerged from stealth to streamline how startups and talent access new markets, with a particular early focus on the United States. After guiding more than 3,000 student visa applications through Crimson Education, Concord Visa has been created to support another under-served, high performing group; the ambitious people and high growth startups trying to access new markets. 'With Crimson Education our mission was to unlock the best academic and career possibilities for students anywhere in the world. Concord is the natural extension of this philosophy, allowing extraordinary people and businesses to work where their ambitions take them,' said Crimson Education CEO, Jamie Beaton. 'We started Concord because we saw the same pattern again and again. Our Crimson alumni were doing incredible things; founding companies, joining high-growth and impact teams, conducting high-impact research, performing, competing, creating, but constantly trying to navigate visa hurdles. The process was confusing, slow, and often disconnected from the actual value they were bringing,' said Beaton. Concord Visa is built on the premise that neither career nor company growth should be stifled by bureaucratic hurdles. Its core offering expedites and optimises visa applications, particularly for highly sought-after categories like the O-1 visa for individuals with extraordinary abilities and achievements or the L-1, E-2, E-3, EB-1A, NIW, and skills shortage visas. The O-1 visa for 'extraordinary' individuals has gained in popularity in recent years, particularly amongst the growing class of startup founders and talents looking to expand their companies and careers in the United States. There is no annual cap on O-1's issued annually, meaning there is potential for more well prepared candidates to reach the US using them. 'My own journey to getting an O-1 visa was totally random. I bumped into a fellow Kiwi entrepreneur who mentioned she's secured a green card through this mystical process. After going through the application, I managed to land my visa, enabling me to build Crimson at full speed,' said Beaton. Australia and New Zealand non immigrant visas have been on the rise since COVID. Up 25% in Australia between 2022 and 2024, and 28% for New Zealanders over the same period.* 'Our approach is fundamentally different,' explains Kevin Park, CEO and co-founder of Concord Visa. 'We don't just process paperwork; we partner with our clients to understand their unique trajectory and build a compelling narrative that maximizes their chances of visa success.' As well as providing individual support for all immigration applications, the new business is also developing automation tools, and a modern, digital experience. This is contrasted with the industry writ-large, which has been bogged down by inefficiencies, high cost, and a lack of innovation. For startups, time and money are critical, and traditional immigration services often drain both. Concord offers flat-fee packages, ensuring transparency and predictability, while significantly reducing the time commitment required from founders and employees. Lifting up the next generation of ANZ unicorns Traditional visa services often operate with outdated methodologies, leading to significant delays, exorbitant costs, and a lack of tailored advice for the dynamic startup world. Before publicly launching its new immigration consultancy, Concord Visa has already guided more than 100 individuals and companies through their U.S. visa process, including brand tracking startup Tracksuit. Mikayla Hopkins, Head of Marketing at Tracksuit, used Concord to navigate visa applications during a critical period as they closed in on a mammoth $25m USD Series B raise. 'Navigating the complexities of international visas was essential to Tracksuit's growth and helped avoid setbacks during a crucial phase. Ensuring our talent moves freely keeps the business scaling globally. Their expertise was instrumental in enabling our expansion into the U.S. market,' said Hopkins. Likewise, Wayne Zhou, GM at Paraform Recruiters, relied on Concord to pave his path from Australia to the world stage as the company closed a $20 million USD Series A. Solving startups problems before they happen Concord Visa offers strategic guidance that goes beyond compliance, consulting with startups on their broader business objectives, identifying potential pitfalls related to visa compliance that traditional firms often overlook. For example, many international startups heading to the States receive advice to pursue treaty visas (E2 visas), which are initially straightforward but can become invalid when a company raises funding from diverse international investors. This can lead to a scramble to secure alternative visas under tight deadlines, or needing to leave the country within 60 days. 'We act as strategic advisors, looking far down the road to anticipate challenges,' adds Park. 'A common issue we see is companies outgrowing their initial visa strategy after successful funding rounds. Our expertise helps them plan for these eventualities, ensuring their talent remains compliant and their growth trajectory isn't disrupted by unforeseen immigration complexities.' Concord Visa is also building innovative technological solutions to further streamline the immigration process. Currently in development, these tools will proactively monitor changes in employment status, promotions, or residential addresses, automatically flagging potential visa compliance issues before they escalate. Concord Visa is 100% owned by Crimson Education, and currently helps with immigration into Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States.
Scoop
7 hours ago
- Scoop
Crimson Education Graduates Into The Workforce With New Visa Spin-Out, Concord Visa
Concord Visa, an immigration consultancy spin-out from Crimson Education, has emerged from stealth to streamline how startups and talent access new markets, with a particular early focus on the United States. After guiding more than 3,000 student visa applications through Crimson Education, Concord Visa has been created to support another under-served, high performing group; the ambitious people and high growth startups trying to access new markets. 'With Crimson Education our mission was to unlock the best academic and career possibilities for students anywhere in the world. Concord is the natural extension of this philosophy, allowing extraordinary people and businesses to work where their ambitions take them,' said Crimson Education CEO, Jamie Beaton. 'We started Concord because we saw the same pattern again and again. Our Crimson alumni were doing incredible things; founding companies, joining high-growth and impact teams, conducting high-impact research, performing, competing, creating, but constantly trying to navigate visa hurdles. The process was confusing, slow, and often disconnected from the actual value they were bringing,' said Beaton. Concord Visa is built on the premise that neither career nor company growth should be stifled by bureaucratic hurdles. Its core offering expedites and optimises visa applications, particularly for highly sought-after categories like the O-1 visa for individuals with extraordinary abilities and achievements or the L-1, E-2, E-3, EB-1A, NIW, and skills shortage visas. The O-1 visa for 'extraordinary' individuals has gained in popularity in recent years, particularly amongst the growing class of startup founders and talents looking to expand their companies and careers in the United States. There is no annual cap on O-1's issued annually, meaning there is potential for more well prepared candidates to reach the US using them. 'My own journey to getting an O-1 visa was totally random. I bumped into a fellow Kiwi entrepreneur who mentioned she's secured a green card through this mystical process. After going through the application, I managed to land my visa, enabling me to build Crimson at full speed,' said Beaton. Australia and New Zealand non immigrant visas have been on the rise since COVID. Up 25% in Australia between 2022 and 2024, and 28% for New Zealanders over the same period.* "Our approach is fundamentally different," explains Kevin Park, CEO and co-founder of Concord Visa. "We don't just process paperwork; we partner with our clients to understand their unique trajectory and build a compelling narrative that maximizes their chances of visa success.' As well as providing individual support for all immigration applications, the new business is also developing automation tools, and a modern, digital experience. This is contrasted with the industry writ-large, which has been bogged down by inefficiencies, high cost, and a lack of innovation. For startups, time and money are critical, and traditional immigration services often drain both. Concord offers flat-fee packages, ensuring transparency and predictability, while significantly reducing the time commitment required from founders and employees. Lifting up the next generation of ANZ unicorns Traditional visa services often operate with outdated methodologies, leading to significant delays, exorbitant costs, and a lack of tailored advice for the dynamic startup world. Before publicly launching its new immigration consultancy, Concord Visa has already guided more than 100 individuals and companies through their U.S. visa process, including brand tracking startup Tracksuit. Mikayla Hopkins, Head of Marketing at Tracksuit, used Concord to navigate visa applications during a critical period as they closed in on a mammoth $25m USD Series B raise. "Navigating the complexities of international visas was essential to Tracksuit's growth and helped avoid setbacks during a crucial phase. Ensuring our talent moves freely keeps the business scaling globally. Their expertise was instrumental in enabling our expansion into the U.S. market," said Hopkins. Likewise, Wayne Zhou, GM at Paraform Recruiters, relied on Concord to pave his path from Australia to the world stage as the company closed a $20 million USD Series A. Solving startups problems before they happen Concord Visa offers strategic guidance that goes beyond compliance, consulting with startups on their broader business objectives, identifying potential pitfalls related to visa compliance that traditional firms often overlook. For example, many international startups heading to the States receive advice to pursue treaty visas (E2 visas), which are initially straightforward but can become invalid when a company raises funding from diverse international investors. This can lead to a scramble to secure alternative visas under tight deadlines, or needing to leave the country within 60 days. "We act as strategic advisors, looking far down the road to anticipate challenges," adds Park. "A common issue we see is companies outgrowing their initial visa strategy after successful funding rounds. Our expertise helps them plan for these eventualities, ensuring their talent remains compliant and their growth trajectory isn't disrupted by unforeseen immigration complexities." Concord Visa is also building innovative technological solutions to further streamline the immigration process. Currently in development, these tools will proactively monitor changes in employment status, promotions, or residential addresses, automatically flagging potential visa compliance issues before they escalate. Concord Visa is 100% owned by Crimson Education, and currently helps with immigration into Australia, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States.
NZ Herald
16 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Covid spending can be justified, despite Treasury report
Coverage of this report has focused on an implication that Treasury were opposed to much of the Covid-19 response and had sought to limit the extent of Government spending. Others have noted that the report does not say this directly, though the selective quotes from advice at different stages do not exactly discourage this reading. In the interests of full disclosure, I was an adviser to the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson from December 2020 onwards. Unsurprisingly, my perspective often differed from Treasury (which in some ways was a key required skill for that job), and readers may reasonably take that into account in the criticisms that follow. The risks highlighted in the report around the use of fiscal policy tend to underline the view that 'cyclical management should mostly be left to monetary policy run by an independent central bank'. This is not a new position – it is such an established aspect of economic orthodoxy that it is known as the 'consensus assignment'. Finance Minister Grant Robertson during the pandemic. Photo / Pool Why, then, would we use fiscal policy in response to a shock? Recent decades have seen very low interest rates, and therefore situations where central banks cannot cut rates to the level they believe necessary to support the economy. This issue is known as the 'effective lower bound' and was one of the major preoccupations of economic debates following the global financial crisis. However, it was clear that Treasury had done limited thinking on how fiscal policy should be used in a crisis. This was despite the fact that the official cash rate was just 1% as the pandemic approached. I recall my surprise at being briefed on a work programme to review Treasury's macro-economic framework – thinking that I would have assumed it had already taken place sometime in the previous decade. At different stages Covid-19 required spending to support overall economic activity (i.e. stimulus) as well as more targeted spending for workers and businesses directly affected by lockdowns. The LTIB notes that Treasury did support large-scale spending responses in the initial stages, but then 'advised shifting towards more targeted fiscal support and recommended against further stimulus from Budget 2022 onwards'. Covid-19-related supports had continued during this period, because large numbers of New Zealanders continued to be affected by Covid-19, most notably during the Auckland lockdowns. But the purpose of this spending was to support people and businesses during a time when normal economic activity was not possible, not to stimulate more economic activity. Despite the large initial cost of the wage subsidy scheme in 2019/20, the largest year for Covid-related spending was actually 2021/22, owing to the combination of business support programmes and the ramping up of the national health response. Former Beehive staffer Toby Moore. Photo / Supplied A further, separate category of spending is funding allocated through the Budget operating allowance, which is typically a mix of new spending and the increased cost of existing spending (cost pressures). In late 2021, the operating allowances for upcoming budgets were increased compared to what was previously signalled. Treasury has at times raised concerns that adjusting future allowances might undermine credibility; however, it was not an uncommon occurrence for parts of Treasury to raise such concerns and for other parts of Treasury to put advice to the Minister suggesting that allowance should increase. It is important to understand that budget allowances are not an end in themselves. Adhering to previously planned allowances come what may does not amount to a sensible fiscal strategy, and governments tend to put more focus on whether those allowances are contributing to them keeping debt or deficit levels in line with their intended objectives. The operating allowance for Budget 2022 was large, at $6 billion. But based on forecasts at the time, that level of spending was consistent with Government debt peaking at a much lower level than earlier forecasts, and the Government's books returning to surplus much earlier, in 2023/24. At the point Treasury states that they were not advising further stimulus, this was very much the Government's view as well. Economic and fiscal forecasts were looking much different from mid-2022 onward, and the economy continued to slow as the Reserve Bank tightened interest rates in response to rising inflation of the sort that was experienced around the world. While larger proportions of budget spending during this period were trying to maintain existing public services in the face of high levels of inflation, the other side of this story is the fact that forecast tax revenue has continually failed to eventuate. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the pandemic. Photo / Mark Tantrum Ahead of Budget 2024, Nicola Willis alluded to a further downgrade in economic and fiscal forecasts, saying 'Sadly, I've learned to dread what comes out of the forecasters' mouths when they come into my office'. If nothing else, this is a sentiment shared across successive offices of the Minister of Finance. Repeated downward revisions of the tax-to-GDP ratio over time means that Budget 2025 forecasts for the current fiscal year are a full 3.3% of GDP lower than what forecasts in mid-2022 had anticipated. This has contributed to OBEGAL surplus getting pushed further out in the forecast period (and more recently, only showing surpluses on the Government's self-invented measure, OBEGALx). If decision-makers had cared only about inflation and nothing else, fiscal policy could potentially have done a lot more to reduce economic activity. With the Government not willing to resort to tax increases, more contractionary fiscal policy would have meant absorbing more of the burden of constraining demand through deteriorating public services, with the Reserve Bank having to do less through the OCR. Given the ongoing pressure on the health system today, we should be glad this was not the path that was taken. But far from being critical of this Budget spending, Treasury was also raising concerns that spending was not high enough. In the half-year update in 2022, Treasury expressed concern about what it described as the largest fall in real government consumption since 1987. As late as October 2022 Treasury was advising the Minister of Finance to increase the allowance for the next Budget from $4.5 billion to $5b. This incongruous array of advice was not a matter of mutinous radicals seizing control of the Government's lead economic adviser. Treasury was trying to tread the same narrow path that the Government was. The economy as a whole was hitting up against its capacity, and vulnerable New Zealanders needed targeted support towards the cost of living. Every dollar of additional spending risked adding to inflation and every dollar of spending that was withheld meant that rising costs would hit core government services or households directly. It is appropriate that we try to learn lessons from the experience of Covid-19. It is reasonable for people to disagree with some aspects of the fiscal response and it is highly unlikely that every decision taken was the right one. But the economic response was overwhelmingly guided by officials' advice rather than contrary to it. There may now be unease among some public servants about the level of debt that New Zealand assumed or the spending pressures that it is facing. But the other side of that debt is the businesses that are still operating, the people who were kept in work and the loss of friends and family members that were avoided because NZ chose to support each other through that most complex and challenging time. Toby Moore is a doctoral candidate at Te Herenga Waka - Victoria University of Wellington and was previously a senior adviser to former Finance Minister Grant Robertson. He is also on the Labour Party's policy council, though the views here are his own
