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Sheep And Beef Farmers Deliver Record Red Meat Returns

Sheep And Beef Farmers Deliver Record Red Meat Returns

Scoop27-05-2025

Press Release – New Zealand Government
The global appetite for high-quality, natural protein is continuing to grow, driving strong prices for New Zealand lamb and beef.
Minister of Agriculture
New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers are delivering record-breaking red meat export sales and driving strong farmgate returns to the rural economy Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says.
'March was a standout month for our red meat exporters, with a record $1.26 billion in export sales—a 34 per cent increase on March last year. First quarter exports also hit $3.28 billion, up 28 per cent from last year. This is great news for farmers, processors, and rural communities across New Zealand,' Mr McClay says.
The global appetite for high-quality, natural protein is continuing to grow, driving strong prices for New Zealand lamb and beef.
'This reflects a deeper, longer-term shift in global consumer behaviour. People everywhere are turning to clean, high-quality, safe and sustainable animal protein, and New Zealand is delivering,' Mr McClay says.
Beef and Lamb New Zealand's February forecast projected red meat export revenue to achieve an additional $1.2 billion for the 2024/25 production year. That outlook is well on track, thanks to our farmers hard work and world leading production, with April Stats NZ data confirming an additional $1.1 billion or 5 per cent increase in red meat exports over the past year bringing the total value to $10.6 billion.
The Government is doing its part to ensure farmers see more returns at the farm gate by restoring confidence, slashing red tape, and opening up new opportunities.
Key actions to drive growth and keep Wellington out of farming include:
Removed agriculture from the Emissions Trading Scheme
Currently banning full farm-to-forest conversions
Started the process of replacing the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management
Moved to fundamentally reform the Resource Management Act
Halted unworkable winter grazing, stock exclusion, and Significant Natural Area (SNA) rules
Begun rebalancing Te Mana o te Wai to restore the rights of all water users
Disbanded Labour's He Waka Eke Noa initiative
Repealed the punitive Ute Tax
Commenced an inquiry into rural banking
Halted Labour's costly Freshwater Farm Plans
Completed a number of Free Trade Agreements that offer farmers greater opportunity in new markets
Removed $733 million in non-tariff trade barriers
'Our farmers are world leaders in producing high-quality, safe, sustainable, grass-fed meat. This Government backs them 100 per cent, and we'll keep cutting through the red tape so they can keep delivering for New Zealand,' Mr McClay says.

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Echo Chamber: The trouble with taking David Seymour at his word
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The Spinoff

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  • The Spinoff

Echo Chamber: The trouble with taking David Seymour at his word

If the Act Party leader misspoke in a forest and no one was around to hear it, would it still make a sound? Echo Chamber is The Spinoff's dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. A long weekend stumbled into a short week back in the House, where a Mad Hatter call of 'change places!' has seen NZ First and the Act Party swap sides at the tea party. Over the weekend, some 642km north, NZ First leader Winston Peters' reins of power as deputy prime minister were handed over to Act leader David Seymour, who celebrated the occasion in typical low-key style: with an Auckland brunch for fans of David Seymour to pay their respects to David Seymour. Peters, sat in the south end of the chamber, now rests in a no man's land two seats away from Te Pāti Māori, where co-leader Rawiri Waititi shot glances to his koro from up north throughout the session. Meanwhile Seymour, at the prime minister's side, whispered sweet nothings into Christopher Luxon's ear then flipped through documents throughout the circus, with three full glasses of water at his side. Before Tuesday's question time began, Te Pāti Māori's Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke called for the House to acknowledge the 30-year anniversary of Waikato Tainui's raupatu settlement, with which only one party leader took issue. If we celebrated every single successful Treaty settlement, Peters argued, we'd be losing valuable time almost every day of the week. Labour MP Peeni Henare's unimpressed voice floated through the chamber: 'Wooooow ….' 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The minister for resources, Shane Jones, had spent the first 30 minutes of question time spurting his favourite slogans – 'mining!', 'fossil fuels!', 'heavy metal!' – at random, even when no one was talking about mining, fossil fuels or heavy metals. Finally, his NZ First colleague Tanya Unkovich offered him some patsies, so he could relish in the noble art of drilling a well into gas fields like those in Taranaki, and having the Crown take a 10-15% stake from these projects. 'Gas is short,' Jones started – 'not from you!' an opposition voice called – then 'talk is cheap'. The country's natural gas resources have been in decline, he declared, thanks to a 'foolish and dangerous … fateful decision of 2018 ' to ban oil exploration (Jones was indeed a minister for that Labour-led government at the time). Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, a star student of the school of standing orders, raised a point of order: that was clearly a political statement, he told the speaker, and shouldn't have been allowed. Well, I disagree with you, Gerry Brownlee replied – how could a government campaign against something and not be able to talk about it? Proving his respect for Brownlee's rulings and never-ending wish for unity among the parties, Jones began his next answer: 'Decisions riddled with woke ideology from the past government …' and the House erupted in laughter, clearly tired of such performative acclaim. Labour MP Duncan Webb was allowed to pose a question to a member of parliament rather than a minister, asking National backbencher and chair of the finance and expenditure committee Cameron Brewer why the submission window for the Regulatory Standards Bill was only open for four weeks, when the bill had a six-month reporting deadline. Parliament's left bloc has gone hard on campaigning against said bill, an Act Party classic hit, with claims that it's more controversial and damaging to Treaty obligations than the recently deceased Treaty principles bill. Mr Speaker, Brewer explained, the minister for regulation (aka Seymour) has already written to me to explain that he had 'misspoken' when the bill had its first reading on May 23. You may remember Seymour moved for the bill to be reported to the House on December 23, 'when he in fact meant to say September 23!' He'd take the minister at his word, Brewer said, as groans rippled through the House. So, Webb continued, would the committee chair bend to Seymour's demands, or follow the usual parliamentary process which asks that select committees be given six months to report back to the House? 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