WTF? Where’s the finance? Or food?
Published date | 01 December 2022 |
Publication title | Whanganui Chronicle |
Internally, however, it feels like a different story.
The stresses in the health, education and food production systems are palpable. All are understaffed, working longer hours, feel undervalued and the metrics of their work are deteriorating.
Waiting lists for treatment have increased, passing rates at school have decreased, and in food production it is difficult to maintain the usual rotation of planting, growing, harvesting and processing with the extreme weather conditions and poor labour availability.
The meat processors are already warning that short-staffing is creating delays, which in turn means farmers have to feed animals on-farm for longer than anticipated.
The knock-on effect is feed shortages and increased greenhouse gases (GHG) for the product, neither of which is desirable. It also creates stress for the farmer.
More stresses are caused by the increase in costs of production, on top of increases in interest rates. The margins in food production are small and eroding in the face of inflation, which is 15 per cent in farming operations — more than twice as high as general inflation (7.2 per cent).
On top of everything are the increases in regulations in every industry — which for farmers and growers are impacting on their ability to produce food at a price that consumers want to pay.
Paperwork is taking the satisfaction out of the primary sector. The number of “for sale” notices at farm gates appears to have increased but sales are down.
A rural spokesperson from REINZ, Brian Peacocke (who recently stepped down as rural spokesperson), has explained that sales have dropped despite income being strong, because “confidence is being eroded in the overwhelming increase in costs across the board”.
All house sellers will be experiencing the same angst: if your asset appears not to be desired by others, you start questioning past decisions, which undermines self-confidence.
The extra confusion for farmers and growers is that they are known globally as being extremely efficient producers, are improving efficiencies all the time with animal and plant breeding, as well as management, and provide the bulk of the export income — which is what is needed for health, education and infrastructure improvements.
If farmers stop producing food to...
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