Helping New Zealand’s farmers take care of our land

12 June 2019

New Zealand’s green reputation is one of this country’s strongest selling points, but how to manage the relationship between farming and the environment is complex and controversial.

How do we support New Zealand farmers transition to a more environmentally friendly and economically sustainable future?

The clamour to act urgently on climate change is adding pressure on farmers to manage environmental sustainability, but farmers often have to make trade-offs between what they want to develop and what’s affordable.

New Zealand’s banks are increasingly focused on helping agribusiness meet the challenges of developing sustainable farming practices.

With its Environment Loan, ANZ supports customers to prepare their farm environment plan.

The loan pay for a range of infrastructure investments designed to develop or improve environment management, including water and energy conservation projects, fencing and planting, and effluent management.

This support for the farming community is one reason why Canstar is delighted to announce that ANZ has won our Agribusiness Bank of the Year award for the eighth year in a row.

Canstar General Manager Jose George says: “Farming sustainably while protecting New Zealand’s unique environment inevitably involves trade-offs between profitability and care for the land.

“Through its Environment Loan, ANZ has demonstrated its commitment both to New Zealand Agribusiness and environmental sustainability. Winning the award for the eighth year in a row is a fantastic achievement and recognises ANZ's institutional support for our farming community.”

ANZ outperformed the market across all institutional measures these included service and support, information and education and disaster relief or assistance.

ANZ has a large network of Agribusiness managers and support their communities through programs like the Primary Growth Partnership – Red Meat Profit Partnership. Further strengths include the custom benchmarking that is now offered across the sheep and beef sectors as well as specific Agri education programs and succession planning for the Agricultural industry. This breadth of offering through the end to end process is where ANZ excels in servicing the Agribusiness industry.

Accepting the award, ANZ Commercial and Agri Managing Director Mark Hiddleston says: “It is a great achievement to have won the Canstar award for eight years running and shows ANZ is always looking for ways to improve our support for agri customers.”

“As sustainability becomes imperative for all businesses, we continue to see plenty of examples where customers are growing and preserving the value of their land and businesses through investment in environmental initiatives,” Mr Hiddleston says.

“While this award is a great achievement for ANZ and something we are very proud of, I am equally pleased to see recognition for our farmers and their commitment to building a more sustainable future for New Zealand’s agri sector.”

For further information and for a full copy of the Agribusiness Bank of the Year Report 2019, please click here

ENDS

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