Agsafe Weekly Rural Report

Finance: The NZ dollar has continued to weaken and is now at 56 cents against the US dollar &while it is good for exporters, it is tough on importers. Brent Crude is steady around and below the $US65/barrel.

Wool: The wool prices are firming. There is strong demand from China.

Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules are steady with strong demand for red meat internationally. The strong schedules are pushing domestic meat prices up.

Dairy Prices. The g/DT fell more than expected with a 3% drop. 7 of the last 10 auctions have been in decline. WMP dropped 1.9% to $US3452/ton, SMP fell 0.6% and butter was down 7.6%. A downward adjustment to the FGMP is likely.

Trump has dropped the tariff on NZ beef and kiwifruit into the USA. The beef tariffs are now less than 1%. The sheep meat rates remain at the Trump penalty rate which is disappointing. The red meat sales to Europe have increased and the demand is from the USA, Europe and China. We are anticipating beef prices, in particular, to remain strong for foreseeable future.

You can hear us live on the radio on Monday morning at 7.35 am with Brian Kelly on Country Sport Breakfast – Radio NZ Gold AM. 792 AM in the Waikato & 1332 AM in Auckland.

Jim’s Weekly Rant:

We are about a year out from the next General Election so I though a few comments might get us all ready for the next year and how we can all be part of making NZ great again. There is a lot of frustration with the coalition government and rumours of a coup to topple Luxon are rife. At the same time Labour seems to be experiencing a resurgence in the polls with Chippy at the helm. It is difficult to understand why Labour are experiencing a resurgence when the latest capital gains tax policy lacked any sort of detail and they have offered nothing more to make NZ great again, and their Capital Gains tax won’t, so perhaps it is just Hipkins charisma that has kicked in!!. The Maori Party and the Greens continue to dig holes to climb into and there is a hope that the Maori Party will self-implode and that the Greens will go back to school and learn some basic science and develop a new understanding of honesty and integrity before offering themselves for public office. But the real question is why are people dissatisfied with the current coalition and Luxon? Firstly: The main reason I am given seems to be more about our political process than the actual government – it takes too long to get things done. Farmers, in particular, have been given hope that the cost of resource consents will become easier and less costly and take less time to be granted, however we are 2-years into the election cycle and the changes to the Resource Management Act have not been enacted and the exorbitant costs and delays continue. Property development companies are experiencing similar frustrations and delays. The public were also promised a pull-back from the creation of a “pigeon-english” language that was evolving under Labour, and the pull-back is happening too slow with TVNZ and RNZ failing to understand the publics frustration. It is happening, but only in part with most government departments still using the created name and the schools in particular pulling back from the government directives regarding the Treaty. Secondly: The rural sector is frustrated with the governments continued fascination with being part of the group of countries hell-bent on staying with the Paris Agreement and ignoring the Methane Science Accord reports and the destructive Net-Zero ideology. Thirdly: Christopher Luxon just doesn’t seem to have the charisma that the public have come to expect of our Prime Minister in recent years.
While the frustrations continue I believe we are stuck with the coalition as it is until the next election as both NZ First and ACT would struggle to re-align themselves with a new “imposed” leader from National. Seymore and Peters will continue to be at odds with each other, but neither will want to destroy the coalition and their parties opportunity to influence the government. There have been comments suggesting a grand coalition between Labour and National as a plan to rid the country of all minor parties and that would be interesting seeing Luxon and Hipkins vying for the leadership with the decision relying on the outcome of the “paper-scissors-rock” contest. So my current assessment is – Luxon will stay on a PM, Peter’s and Seymore will continue to tolerate each other with an improved public presentation and asked to keep their personal spats out of the public arena. Labours fortunes will come and go over the year and the Maori Party will continue to fragment into tribal groupings and will only get votes from within the tribe they represent and the Greens will continue with their uneducated rhetoric supported by their ideologically driven devotees. It will be an interesting 12-months, but the success of our country relies on each one of us standing up for what we believe in. Well, I am off to a BBQ lunch with Mr Luxon today to see if I can talk him into dumping the Paris Agreement!!!

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