If  you think the Emissions Trading Scheme doesn’t apply to farming until 2015, think again, says ACT MP John Boscawen. From July 1 costs on most farms will rise by thousands of dollars due to an ETS induced 4c/litre rise in fuel prices, and a 5% hike in electricity charges.

New Zealand now stands alone in implementing such a scheme and he says he would like to see farmers and the public protesting in the streets to persuade Government to ditch it. “Why are we penalising our farmers? Our farmers have enough problems competing internationally without this,” he told Rural News.

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Farmers need to forget about making quick money through capital gain and instead focus on improving productivity and their cashflow to grow their wealth, National Bank chief economist Cameron Bagrie believes.He visited Invercargill last week as part of a National Bank rural roadshow to let clients know how things were changing following the global economic crisis last year reports The Southland Times.

“New Zealanders need to accept that the economic model of the past 20 years, which is borrow and spend-style growth, is an unsustainable model.”The rural sector needs to accept … you’re not going to see the big speculative asset price booms. The value of your asset needs to be determined by yield and cashflow.”

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NZ and Hong Kong will today sign a closer economic partnership (CEP) agreement, building on the free trade agreement with China reports The NZ Herald.Trade Minister Tim Groser said the agreement strengthened economic links between NZ and the Asia-Pacific region.

“The CEP complements our existing FTA with China and, given Hong Kong’s position as a regional trading and investment hub, supports NZ  business engagement with the wider region,” said Groser. “With a remarkable 43 per cent increase in our exports to China over the past 12 months – an extra billion dollars of export revenue earned – there is real potential here for NZ .

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Major meat processor Silver Fern Farms will expand into the premium lamb market in China on its own after a proposed partnership of processing companies collapsed reports Stuff. The partnership was to be modelled on the successful NZ Lamb Company joint venture in North America, but failed to get past the business case level.

SFF chief executive Keith Cooper has refused to reveal which company or companies pulled out of the consortium of SFF, Alliance and Anzco, but Alliance has since said the returns were unconvincing. He said there was no bad blood between the companies and the North American venture would continue unaffected, but SFF would now look at opportunities to develop its own brand.

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Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier doubts there is an economic case for Chinese looking to invest in the dairy industry to buy their own processing plants in this country. Chinese-owned Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings told the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday it had entered into an agreement to buy assets, including land, livestock and milk powder production plants in this country for $1.5 billion reports Stuff.

Mr Ferrier today said the possibility that Chinese investment in this country could compete with Fonterra would depend on whether they wanted to put in their own processing assets, or whether they wanted to run their milk through Fonterra. He doubted there was an economic case for them to buy their own processing plants in this country, with the Fonterra system far more efficient than anyone could replicate.

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Murray Horn is surprised his task to unite the strong wool industry has been compared with making peace in the Middle East. His surprise stems from his view that the dysfunctional and under-performing wool industry wants to change, an opinion not universally held by commentators.

Dr Horn was last week appointed by Agriculture Minister David Carter an independent convener to facilitate a meeting of wool sector organisations, to begin the process of creating a single body to speak on behalf of the strong wool sector. While not underestimating the task ahead of him, Dr Horn said he believed the industry recognised something had to be done reports The ODT.

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Spending more than $5 billion on large-scale Canterbury irrigation will create 17,000 new jobs and boost the region’s economy by 8 per cent a year, a report says. The first economic assessment of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy says building water storage in Tekapo, Lake Coleridge, Lees Valley and Hurunui will cost $5.2b and irrigate an extra 236,000 hectares reports The Timaru Herald. On-farm gross domestic product would be boosted by $400 million a year and $1.7b would be added to regional GDP annually, an 8 per cent increase. An estimated 17,000 extra jobs would be created throughout the region, including 3000 farm jobs, the report said.

Environmentalists warn the report is “superficial” and does not account for environmental mitigation. But irrigation proponents were encouraged by the analysis and said benefits like recreational opportunities could not be quantified in dollar terms. Cabinet is expected today to discuss the future of ECan, following the damning Creech report which recommended sacking the elected councillors, appointing commissioners and establishing a regional water authority. The Government is expected to decide within weeks if it will adopt the report’s recommendations.

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The Government may look at opening some conservation land to livestock grazing as a way for the Department of Conservation to generate income reports The ODT. Agri Minister David Carter told about 300 farmers in Central Otago last week that finding ways to generate income from a conservation estate that grew in size under the previous government was a looming issue, and allowing strictly controlled grazing to licensed farmers could be a solution.

“That, to me, makes perfect sense,” he said at the Fed Farmers high country committee two-yearly field day in the Nevis Valley last Wednesday. Don Clarke, of Carrick Station, told the field day that he had found grazing of the upright-growing invasive weed, Hieracium lepidulum, could control its spread. Mr Carter repeated his support for the greater use of conservation covenants administered through organisations such as the QEII Trust, saying it was “a sensible” way to achieve biodiversity protection and allow economic use of land.

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Two controversial Canterbury irrigation schemes have come out winners in a competition for projects judged to have the potential to make $1 billion each in sales within 20 years reports Business Day. The $150 million Central Plains Water Enhancement Scheme (CPW), now a cut-down irrigation project after widespread community opposition, and the Hurunui Water Project, were judged as having big potential.

Together, the two want to irrigate more than 100,000 hectares of farmland in central and north Canterbury. They involve land acquisition and the construction of canals and a dam. The competition, which drew 18 entries, was the brainchild of University of Canterbury vice- chancellor Dr Rod Carr.

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Textiles New Zealand has entered discussions with the Department of Conservation (DoC) and Animal Health Board to boost the number of possums commercially harvested for use in clothing manufacturing. The fur industry has criticised the departments in the past for limiting access to harvesting areas and poisoning animals, leaving them to die in the bush reports The NZ Herald.

Textiles New Zealand chief executive Elizabeth Tennet said there was the potential to increase the annual harvest from 1.7 million animals to more than 3 million – a move that would double the industry’s annual revenue to $200 million. The fur market was growing, both domestically and overseas, where possum fur was becoming more popular, she said.

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