Agsafe Weekly Rural Report

Agsafe Weekly Rural Report 13 December 2025 Finance: The NZ dollar remained steady to slightly firmer during the week. The economists are starting to “talk-up” the economy to hopefully encourage a bit of Christmas spending. Brent Crude is steady around and below the $US65/barrel.

Wool: The wool prices are firming with strong demand from China. There is growing optimism in the sector

Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules are steady. The strong demand for red meat from Europe, Asia & the USA will push domestic meat prices up as 85% of NZ meat is exported. The NZ consumers are commenting on the price of meat!!!

Dairy Prices. With strong dairy prices, the international production has begun to increase putting downward pressure on prices. The Fonterra management is remaining confident that they will be able to maintain the payout at the current notified levels.

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:
The government has made a bold move to remove the Regional Councils and the Resource Management Act at the same time. The suggested replacement is a Territorial Board akin to the Auckland Unity Council Area. I believe the government has failed to fully understand the role of the Regional Councils and perhaps should have gotten rid of the Councils by amalgamating them into the Regional groups instead, as there are synergies within the local areas and the wider region and some of the smaller councils would benefit from the larger territorial grouping. There are drainage issues and land-use activities that currently span the local council boundaries and the common management of these is essential. But then people and politics get in the way of real reform. The proposed Territorial Board will work well in some areas, but in others the “senior” mayor, who appears to have a casting vote, may have no affinity or sympathy with the rural sector and have limited understanding of the needs for food production. The proposal is to reduce the more than 100 policy statements across the 78 local authorities down to 17 Regional groupings to develop 17 regional land use plans within 2-years is a welcome move. It is proposed that more activities will be permitted by default and the consent categories will be reduced to four. The proposed Act will split the former RMA into 2-separate Bills being a Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill. The government plans to have the new Bill passed by the end of 2026 and operational by 2029. I have previously had my say on the time it takes to implement legislation in NZ and this is a typical example – we have been waiting since the election in October 2023 to hear what the changes are and the government is hopeful they will be passed by October 2026 some 3-years later and then implemented 3-years after that, a total of 6-years and we are told the new Act will simplify and streamline the consenting process!! It is stated that it will save money and improve productivity, but in the interim compliance costs and delays will continue as the dying bureaucracies continue to flex their muscles. The government has legislation to extend the exiting consents as the transition takes place, but it appears as though there will a number of existing consents that will not be required in the future and we are advised that “several current rules from the RMA for things like farming will be scrapped and standardized”, but what are they?? there seems to be no mechanism to identify these now and save the country money and time. The government expects the reforms to save $13.3 billion over 30-years, and increase Gross Domestic Product by at least 0.56 percent annually by 2050. I do support a massive change to the RMA as the ACT had grown into a massive mill-stone around the neck of NZ’s development, but the current lack of detail with indications of areas where change is needed without detail is frustrating for planners and rural operators.