Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has praised New Zealand’s primary sector for delivering record export growth while outlining a series of government initiatives aimed at boosting productivity, reducing compliance costs and expanding international market access.
Speaking at the Primary Industries New Zealand Summit, McClay said the food and fibre sector was forecast to generate $64.3 billion in export revenue in the year to June 2026, driven by strong dairy, meat and horticulture returns. “There has never been a better time to be a food producer,” he told delegates, arguing that farmers were succeeding despite weather challenges, volatile global markets and rising geopolitical uncertainty.
McClay said the Government remained committed to its goal of doubling export earnings within a decade and claimed progress was already ahead of schedule. He highlighted forecasts showing dairy exports reaching a record $28.6 billion, while meat and wool are expected to contribute $14.1 billion and horticulture nearly $9.5 billion. He credited farmers, growers and processors for driving economic growth and supporting jobs in regional communities.
The minister also defended the Government’s regulatory reforms, saying previous rules had created unnecessary costs and uncertainty for farmers. He pointed to changes already made to environmental regulations and reaffirmed plans to replace the Resource Management Act with a simpler planning framework. “Improved environmental performance is a must — but it can and should be achieved without imposing unnecessary and excessive costs on the primary sector,” he said.
McClay announced further support for farmer-led catchment groups, including a $40.5 million funding package over four years, and highlighted a new Minister of Agriculture Future Leaders Scholarship that will provide five annual grants of $10,000 to emerging leaders in agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
Trade featured heavily in the minister’s address, with McClay pointing to growth in exports to the United Kingdom, European Union, China and the United States. He described the recently signed New Zealand–India Free Trade Agreement as one of the most significant trade breakthroughs for the primary sector in a generation, saying it would provide improved access for products including lamb, wool, apples, kiwifruit and forestry exports. “We expect lamb exports alone to double within the first year,” he said.
The minister also reiterated the Government’s new land-use flexibility policy, which would allow farmers greater freedom to determine how land is used provided environmental outcomes are maintained or improved. However, he confirmed productive farmland would not be converted to pine forests for carbon farming. McClay said six public-private projects worth $143 million had been launched to demonstrate how innovation could lift production while improving environmental performance. He concluded by pledging continued support for rural New Zealand, saying the Government was committed to ensuring agriculture remained “competitive, profitable, and sustainable for generations to come.”
Image credit: Martin Bisof
What a load of ….
Apologies, this will be long, but necessary to shovel the farming minsyhter’s bull crap:
Let’s talk about the “real” economy. You know, farming and mining, hte only industries that actually make something instead of just moving money around by parasites. the MO under subsequent govts for farmers: starve them, then sell their carcass to overseas ínvestorslike IKEA.
The number of small farmers going bust hasn’t just ticked up. it’s exploded. Govt hides a neat “bankruptcy” counter because the government prefers to call them “mortgagee sales.” Sounds claener, doesn’t it? Like it’s just a gentle change of ownership. But let’s call it what it is: forced liquidation. In late 2025, rural mortgagee listings hit record highs, with arrears blowing past $166 million. These aren’t bad farmers; these are productive people crushed by 5.5% interest rates and input costs that doubled overnight, not even counting the bloody diesel abyss…live, in a thearte near YOU. The Minister calls it a “market correction” nut its a clearance sale where the only winners are the banks and big corporate entities. Wonder who they donate to.
The second punch is the gerat land grab aka”Overseas Investment”. You may wonder how many small farms foreigners have bought? Wrong Q! The answer is: Not many to farm. Foreiners re buying them to STOP farming. Since 2017, over 300,000 hectares of productive sheep and beef land, much of it small, family-run hills, has been sold off. Who’s buying? Swedish investment arms of IKEA and Swiss funds.What are they doing? Turning our food bowl into a carbon credit factory. They plant pines, lock up the land for 30 years, collect the government subsidies which YOU sheeple are place in febt for, and leave the rural communities ghost towns, for crying out loud! In 2024 alone, another 11,000 hectares vanished under trees.Lovely neat green new Zealand, ay!
The Minshyster talks about “food security” while signing off on deals where foreign funds turn our breadbasket into a tax-deductible forest. For a whole generatio!!! It’s the only businees model where the goal is to dstroy the business to sell the offset.
But waittheere is more: The Masterpiece of broken premises (pun intentional): KiwiSaver. Remember Todd McClay’s pledge? “Unlock KiwiSaver so young farmers can buy a herd or a farm!” (2023(. Well, it’s mid 26, and what do we have? They finally allowed farm workers living in service tenancies to buy a house (if they can find one), but the core promise, i.e. using retirement savings to buy livestock or a small farm, is still stuck in cuntsultation.
To be clear: Farming is the only PRODUCTIVEsector apart from mining (BTW every gamer knows this too) Butbgovt’s policy is: Tax it until it bleeds, regulate it until it stalls, then sell the corpse to a forestry fund.
yep, mining leaves a hole in the ground.
Farming policy is leaving a hole in the country.
Prove me wrong.
We don’t hate the New Zealand Company Church Parliament and all the parasites that represent this foreign Corporation enough.
For suckered scammed NZ shoppers bottom of the line rump steak twenty eight dollars and seventy nine bullsh*t fkn cents a kg at pak n save, thirty fkn dollars plus at bullsh*t mad scam butchers, crappy scraped- off-the-floor mince twenty five bullsh*t dollars a kg,… Every fkn thing shipped to fkn china and bullsh*t europe, fraudulent comglomorate corporate snakes cackling and back-slapping each other as their bank balances skyrocket from their globalist establishment-approved multi- middleman fraud as tax-rorted joe blogs and struggling family get shafted and fkd-over by the big-corporate monopoly weasel-brigade more and more and more…
I need to remember to put me coffee mug down b4 I read SOR
Love how they hijack someone else’s success and claim it was all down to them, when most of the time its in spite of them. IF the sell out morons GMO so called reforms go through you can be sure those profits will plummet. Being GMO free is one of this little nations few export advantages.
Hit the nail on the head: Being GMO free is one of this little nations few export advantages.
GMO globalists’ wet dream will be last nail in the NZ coffin.