Todd Muller - Agriculture

26 September 2019

Rabobank’s latest survey shows farmer’s confidence is continuing to drop and they remain concerned about the future of their industry, National’s Agriculture spokesperson Todd Muller says.

“Rabobank’s data released this morning shows that farmers are becoming increasingly concerned about the primary sector, with the Government’s policies highlighted as the key concern.

“The survey shows that 68 per cent of farmers holding a negative outlook cite the Government as the main reason.

“It’s not surprising considering the continued onslaught of uncertainty and costs that farmers have seen since this Government came to power, whether it be the Tax Working Group report and subsequent Capital Gains Tax campaign, a proposed water tax, a proposal for agriculture entering the Emissions Trading Scheme, onerous methane targets in the Zero Carbon Bill and now the Freshwater proposals and cynical consultation process surrounding them.

“New Zealand’s farmers produce enough food to feed 40 million people globally and account for 60 per cent of our goods exports, all while being the most carbon efficient food producer in the world, this appears to be lost on the Government.

“Farmers used to say there were three things they needed to worry about; interest rates, commodity prices and the weather. Interest rates are at record lows, most commodity prices are above historical averages, and the weather has been pretty good. The Government is now the biggest headache for farmers and they must recognise this and finally start supporting our primary sector.”

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