Dairy farmers challenged to stay competitive

Dairy farmers challenged to maintain global competitiveness

Around 850 North Island dairy farmers converged on Mystery Creek in Hamilton today to discuss the opportunities and challenges ahead for the world’s largest dairy exporting industry.

The first annual DairyNZ Farmers’ Forum kicked off this morning and continues through Thursday. The theme for the Forum is ‘Towards 2020: the next decade in dairying’ and is the largest gathering of North Island dairy farmers for many years.

Keynote speakers this morning included Hon David Carter, Minister of Agriculture and Sir Henry van der Heyden, Chairman of Fonterra.

DairyNZ Chairman John Luxton says the Forum is about challenging farmers to continually improve their farming practices so that the industry can maintain its global competitiveness.

“New Zealand’s dairy industry is the eighth largest dairy producer in the world and the world’s largest dairy exporter. We produce around 36% of the world’s traded milk products. However, there are questions around how long we can retain this position.

“The major threats to our industry’s competitiveness aren’t overseas, but rather at home. These include: low productivity growth on farms, environmental and social constraints that limit industry growth and potential threats to our reputation,” he says.

Mr Luxton referred to KPMG’s Agribusiness Agenda Report released on 19 April and said DairyNZ does not agree with the report’s assertion that the industry only has five years before it loses its competitive edge to lower cost dairy producers, such as Brazil and Argentina.

“Those countries will have to grow rapidly to match New Zealand, improve their quality markedly and increase their production way beyond their domestic demand. We just don’t see that happening in the next five years.

“However, that doesn’t mean we can rest on our laurels. Every New Zealand dairy farmer needs to do his or her part in tackling issues at the farm level to maintain our edge on a global scale. And the top priority as we see it is that farmers need to find ways to increase productivity without increasing the size of the industry’s environmental footprint,” he says.

Mr Luxton also says it is equally important that the general public remains supportive of the dairy industry as it grows.

“As our industry evolves into the future, it’s critical that we have the support of the general public. And to do that, we need to demonstrate responsibility as custodians of the land. We need to enable New Zealanders to be proud of dairy farming and its achievements,” he says.

ENDS

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