The banks vote of confidence in our greenest clean tech industry

With agriculture’s share of exports surging in the latest overseas merchandise trade figures, Federated Farmers has welcomed ANZ’s massive vote of confidence in farming’s future.

“ANZ’s $60 million initiative to help new farmers is welcome and we’d hope the other banks do likewise,” says Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers President and its economics and commerce spokesperson.

“Anything the banks can do to get more people into farming is good from Federated Farmers perspective. The banks aren’t doing this for altruistic reasons. They know the future of our economy lies in food and fibre; whether that’s on-farm, in a factory or the research lab adding value.

“The world is screaming out for our food and fibre. Six of our top ten exports in the year to October were from the agricultural sector and we’ve turned in double digit increases for dairy, meat and wood; our top three merchandise exports.

“The star turn is a 33 percent increase in the export value of wool in the year to October, which is now our fourteenth largest export by value.

“The banks know we need new blood on-farm if we are to continue this success story.

“When we do well, New Zealand does well because over half of everything New Zealand earns from selling goods and services overseas, comes from the agricultural sector. It’s through exports that we pay for vital public services.

“The success of dairy is increasingly feeding through into other parts of pastoral agriculture as the latest merchandise trade statistics show. What we now need is for young Kiwis, their parents and advisors, to take the big farming hint that the ANZ has dropped.

“In addition to banks shouting “go farming”, we also need a big change in rhetoric from commentators and politicians.

“Federated Farmers is sometimes cast as negative but it’s nothing compared to what comes out of the mouths and pens of some outside farming. We are lauded singularly for our economic contribution but lambasted for things that are sometimes not our fault.

“When was the last time you heard a politician say a positive thing about what farmers are doing environmentally? There’s much we’re doing environmentally and young people deserve to know that farming is a lot more than dollars and cents.

“Agriculture is New Zealand’s greenest clean tech industry and our biggest export earner,” Mr Wills concluded.