ANZCO Foods CEO update - March 2023

As a key player in the red meat supply chain, we fully understand the contribution farming makes to New Zealand’s economic wellbeing and we know you do too.

It’s long been said that farming is the backbone of the New Zealand economy, but for the last couple decades, New Zealanders seem to have lost their close connection to their food producers. This is coupled with farming increasingly being on the receiving end of negative comments about the industry’s impact on the environment.

New rules and regulations have been coming down the line thick and fast to facilitate change on-farm and across the sector.

The scale and pace of change means we’ve ended up with a lot of poorly crafted and conflicting rules that are particularly bad for sheep and beef farmers, and for rural communities – that won’t lead to better outcomes for the environment.

Our experience is that farmers are willing to play their part in improving the environment, but the Government has tried to do too much too quickly, and farmers are overwhelmed.

Last week Beef + Lamb NZ, in conjunction with 50 Shades of Green, launched a campaign called Kiwis Backing Farmers to raise awareness about the overwhelming wave of environmental policies and proposals impacting the future of sheep and beef farmers across the country.

The campaign asks New Zealanders to get in behind the sector and to call on the Government to reassess some of its policy plans – taking a holistic approach so we’re ensuring we’re making the right changes at the right pace and time.

The Kiwis Backing Farmers website (kiwisbackingfarmers.nz) profiles the policies that need to be fixed and provides an email template people can use to ask MPs for policy re-sets. It also includes information about the sector’s environmental record.

The empty shelves and high prices that we’re currently seeing in supermarkets are reminders of the impact the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle has had on our food production and our farming, horticulture, and viticulture sectors, as well as reminders about how important these sectors are to New Zealand.

Now more than ever we all need to be kiwis backing farmers, and I encourage you to visit and share the Kiwis Backing Farmers website.

Peter Conley
ANZCO Foods Chief Executive