Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
18 AUGUST 2016

Speech by New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters
Public meeting
The Hub, 23 Gordon St, Dannevirke
Thursday, 18 August, 2016
1.30pm

Selling our dairy cows to China is economic treason

You know, something is happening in New Zealand. Something is happening in rural New Zealand and it’s not good.

New Zealand has built its reputation on the back of rural New Zealand and farming brilliance.

For many years, we the people, especially politicians, were proud to say farming was the back bone of the country.

I have bad news for you. We have people, politicians and some business people in our midst who want to break our back bone and cripple our competitive strength.

New Zealand First has fifteen fundamental principles.

The first one is “Put New Zealand and New Zealanders First”.

As a parent, who would you put before your family?

As a grandparent, who would you put before your grandchildren?

As a farmer, would you put another country’s farmer before your own?

And as a politician, would you put the interests of Chinese farmers before New Zealand farmers?

Putting another country’s interests before your own is economic treason. And it’s been happening right under our feet.

Imagine if you were the CEO of Apple, or the late Steve Jobs. Would Apple give away its “know how” to a Chinese mobile phone company so they can copy their technology? That would be economic treason and cause a shareholder revolt.

Would the houses of Champagne sell their grape stock and “know how” to Chinese wine makers intent on duplicating Champagne? Or allow them to use the Champagne brand? That would be economic treason and cause a French revolution!

That would be as crazy as New Zealand selling its kiwifruit plant stock and “Know how” to Chile … and no one revolted.

New Zealand’s reputation is too important to allow Fonterra to export in-calf heifers to China. It doesn’t matter how you want to spin it - that’s economic treason.

Our farmers are being sold short. Their collective intellectual property and “know how” is being sold for a few pieces of silver.

Downstream it’s the farming community, the local business and rural NZ that will lose out in the long term.

Exporting thousands of in-calf heifers is exporting work and livelihoods for thousands of New Zealanders and is economic treason.

No one will argue, unless you are a money trader, that New Zealand’s backbone is still its farming. Moving our farming (livestock) offshore to help our competition is like Steve Jobs selling Apple’s operating system to China so they can copy it.

I have some sympathy for argument over the safety and wellbeing of the animals. But I have more concern for the preservation of jobs for farmers and for the economy of rural New Zealand.

New Zealand First will stop the live export of breeding stock that will damage our own interests.

But, if you are OK for Fonterra to continue exporting in-calf heifers to China and the reduction in farm and rural incomes, jobs that support the farming community, then vote for National.

China has a clear goal. And that’s to build its dairy industry to meet growing demand from an expanding middle-class.

Can John Key give our farmers and rural New Zealanders a written guarantee that in five years’ time there will be more demand for milk from New Zealand?

Because, at this rate, Chinese consumers will be able to buy New Zealand milk from New Zealand-bred cows in China. And that’s how it will be promoted and marketed in China.

That, my fellow New Zealanders, is economic treason.

It’s economic suicide.

So, what is Fonterra and our government doing selling China our breeding stock? Even a fool could see the light at the end of the tunnel … or is that a train coming?

Eventually, China will have no need for our stock or milk.

Let me do the sums for you.

Since 2012 New Zealand has exported 43,517 live cattle. Of those, 38,232 dairy cows were exported to China.
In 2013, 7200 cows were exported in one shipment. That equates to about 18 dairy herds in Tararua. With the average herd here being between 366 to 396 cows.

In total 98 dairy herds or farms have been exported to China. After breeding that would multiply to well over 150 dairy herds in time.

Take 150 dairy herds out of NZ and what have you got?

You wonder why Fonterra can’t sell its milk to China. Soon there will be no need to.

Fonterra is closing more factories down in New Zealand. Death by a thousand cuts. Do you see the Fonterra executives on million dollar salaries taking a salary cut. No, they get a bonus for committing economic treason.

If the in-calf heifers are being bought by Fonterra for their Chinese partners, why are they hiding the purchase and getting an Australian company to broker the sale to buyers in China?

These shipments are part of a growing trend of NZ cattle being sent to China as the country aims to build its dairy industry at the loss of New Zealand jobs.

It is lucrative for the few farmers involved. They are selling our past for 30 pieces of silver. And destroying your future.

Short term gain, long term loss. As a money trader would say.

I don’t want to be standing in front of you in 3 years’ time, saying I told you so.

I don’t want you telling me in 3 years’ time, New Zealand can no longer compete with China as their quality of milk is the same as ours, but they don’t have to pay for shipment from NZ to China.

It’s admirable for New Zealand to give away 100 years of dairy learning, our knowledge, our competitive point of difference - to help improve China’s underperforming dairy herds. Currently a New Zealand bred cow produces 20 litres per cow more than a Chinese bred dairy cow.

Its admirable that Fonterra is putting China first and helping them close the gap.

Some of our farmers are selling in-calf heifers for export, spurred on by the downturn in dairy payout. They have little alternative at the moment. But who is responsible for that?

Even Federated Farmers dairy chairman Willy Leferink said NZ cattle are highly regarded by Chinese farmers because of their breeding and ability to produce higher quantities of milk. Who’s side is he on?

Fonterra’s goal is to be producing 1 billion litres of milk every year in China by 2018. It processes about 15 billion litres of milk each year from its NZ farmers.

Fonterra says: “It’s actually a WIN/WIN. It’s helping grow the industry and create more demand for New Zealand milk.” That’s where the expression – selling the farm comes from!

NZ is producing a commodity. The “know-how” for others to add value to.

Fonterra says: “ The economy over there (China) is growing so quickly, there’s something like 60,000 babies born a day, half of them are born in the city and most are bought up on milk.”

The milk Fonterra is talking about is called infant formula. The “botulism poisoning” that turned out to be a false alarm, decimated entrepreneurial infant formula manufacturers in NZ. They were poised to capitalise on adding value to NZ quality milk. Unfortunately, they all became collateral damage to Fonterra’s miss management of a self-made crisis.

Now China completely controls the infant formula industry.

Of these 60,000 babies born per day, about 20 million per year - how many NZ owned infant formula company’s products are feeding them? No more than a handful.

According to industry sources Fonterra’s own brand Anmum that sells in China is only around one million cans. It’s feeding only 20,000 babies from a potential market of 50 to 60 million babies aged from 0 to 36 months.

We are sending base powders to China and to other global companies to can and add value.

Now we are selling our top quality herds.

Not only are we giving away our intellectual property and our dairy herds we are missing out on the business of added value infant formula - that’s called re-occurring revenue.

Our farmers in New Zealand produce the best milk in the world. Soon China will be producing our milk, over there!

If you believe like I do, that New Zealand is embroiled in economic treason, secret deals and selling off our IP and dairy “know how”, you can do something about it at the next election.

Ladies and gentleman, economic treason is being rewarded in New Zealand by promoting people to the highest levels of incompetence.

ENDS

© Scoop Media