Latest news with #PrimaryIndustriesNewZealandSummit
Otago Daily Times
15-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
White paper addresses succession challenge
Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris speaks at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch last month. PHOTO: SUPPLIED More than $150 billion in farming assets in New Zealand will require a succession process in the next decade, Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris says. Within the next 10 years, agriculture would need to manage its largest-ever intergenerational transfer of wealth. More than half of all farm and orchard owners — more than 17,300 farmers and growers — would reach age 65, Mr Charteris said. At current land values, the transition of these farmers' operations represents a conservative estimate of more than $150b in farming assets, which will depend on a successful succession process. Mr Charteris launched a new white paper, "Changing of the guard", at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch last month. The findings highlighted the extent of the succession challenge ahead for the sector. "Succession is not a moment in time — it's a process that takes years of planning, conversation and adaptation. "The traditional model of passing the farm to the next generation is under pressure, but there are new and innovative models emerging that can help families stay connected to their land," he said. One in three farmers had a formal succession plan in place. A further 17% had discussed succession with the relevant parties but nothing was documented, leaving exactly 50% who had neither discussed succession nor started a succession plan. Research also finds one-third of farmers intend to pass their farm to their children, yet 39% report having no children seriously interested in farming. "Taking over the family farm involves committing to decades of indebtedness in a sector that is subject to volatility and uncertain returns. It remains a big call for a 20-something and their bank," he said. The paper highlights increasingly prominent succession models which are being adopted to help farming families stay connected to the land. — APL
Scoop
27-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Uncertainty For Meat Workers As Plants Grapple With Low Livestock Numbers
Meat plants across Aotearoa are struggling to match low volumes of livestock coming through with staffing levels. New Zealand's national sheep flock and dairy herd have continued to decline in recent years, impacting the flow of livestock into meat works. However, this has also created a competitive environment for farmers, some of whom were earning record prices for their stock, exacerbating the challenge of profitability for meat companies. Consistently declining livestock numbers saw red meat farmer-owned cooperative Alliance Group close its Smithfield processing plant in Timaru last year. Major red meat processor, Silver Fern Farms' chief executive, Dan Boulton told the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Ōtautahi this week, that the organisation was pulling thousands of seasonal workers off the chain to match capacity with the supply of livestock. "We're holding on tight. We're having to reduce capacity," Boulton said. "We have about 3,000 of our workers on seasonal layoff right now, which normally would be running full steam as we work through the back end of the cow season." Taking capacity off, particularly for night shift workers, helped to reduce and control operating costs, but created issues of uncertainty. "We're trying to attract workers into our sector and that uncertainty around [the] workforce is a real challenge." He said the beef kill was down 4 percent in 2024 and the lamb culls down 9 percent, creating procurement tension among the different companies. "Clearly a big challenge, and so on one hand we've got fantastic market returns and that's bringing profitability back into the sector, but we can't underestimate some of the livestock volumes and where they've landed particularly in the last 18 months. "Those are some big adjustments that the New Zealand processing sector has to make. So clearly, we have a capacity imbalance, that's through the media and that's creating a little bit of uncertainty." Through 2024 Silver Fern Farms recorded a $21.8 million after-tax loss, following a $24.4m loss in 2023. Competitor, co-op Alliance Group reported an after-tax loss of $95.8m for the year ended September, just over half of which accounted for the redundancies associated with Smithfield's closure. Meat Workers Union national secretary Daryl Carran said company profits were being affected by the record prices farmers were getting for livestock because the environment was very competitive. He said the low livestock numbers in farming, which the union had warned meat companies about for years, were particularly acute for larger companies. "Every year we're losing sheep farmers." Curran said realigning capacity with the reducing livestock numbers was vital to the sector's sustainability. "We've recently told one company to rationalise capacity because the numbers just aren't there anymore. "We have too many sites considering the stock we have available." Curran said further plant closures were likely in future, and meat companies should work together to address the processing network. StatsNZ figures showed the national sheep flock had fallen 21 percent in the past decade to 23.6m sheep. The ratio of 22 sheep per New Zealander in the 1980s was now down to 4.5. Dairy cattle also fell by about 13 percent or 860,000 over the decade with the national herd now 5.8m. However, beef cattle numbers were holding steady at 3.7m.
NZ Herald
24-06-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Listen to The Country online: Rabobank Global Strategist Michael Every on Trump
Today on The Country radio show, host Jamie Mackay is live from the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit. He catches up with Rabobank Global Strategist Michael Every, amongst others, before the PINZ Awards ceremony tonight. On with the show: Michael Every: Rabobank Global Strategist says Trump isn't as 'nutty'
Otago Daily Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Succession planning help
New farm succession planning workshops are in Otago this week. Rabobank New Zealand chief executive Todd Charteris said Rabobank was holding free one-day workshops for farmers about succession planning. The workshops were open to anyone and aimed to provide farmers with an understanding of business transition and succession and to aimed to give confidence to start and progress a succession plan. "We regularly ask our clients about the financial topics they want further information on, and this is one topic that has come up time and time again in the discussions our agri managers have with farmers and growers across the country." The new succession workshop topics include asset transfer, business continuance, intergenerational farm ownership, how to clarify roles and responsibilities, and identifying the next steps to make real progress, Mr Charteris said. Workshops would be held in Alexandra today and Oamaru tomorrow. A workshop was held in Balclutha yesterday. The Otago workshops follow a successful pilot event in Feilding last month. "We had about 25 farmers along to the pilot workshop we ran in Feilding and we had some really positive feedback on this." In addition to new workshops, the bank would launch a report, which examines succession on farm, at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit in Christchurch later this month.
