Steady progress with Primary Growth projects

It is eight years since the Primary Growth Partnership programme was announced by the then recently elected National Government. At the end of 2016 there were 20 projects under way and just two completed, but 30^th June sees the completion of FarmIQ, the largest of the red meat sector programmes. This seems to be an appropriate point to evaluate the success of PGP, in particular the six meat and two wool programmes which have been allocated total Crown and industry funding of $342 million.

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Red Meat Story about more than brand image

There has been a great deal of progress towards the development of the New Zealand Red Meat Story, but most of it has been happening under the radar. That is all about to change. B+LNZ is holding a workshop on 1^st and 2^nd March at which a wide group of industry participants – farmers, government, processors and exporters – will gather to start formulating the detail of the story, assisted by a strong line-up of guest speakers with international experience in brand development.

Past, present and future of the meat industry (Part 2)

Present

Today’s industry has many of the same characteristics as the mid 1980s, but a number of things have changed, mostly for the better.

Research is critical to future prosperity

By the time most of you read this, I will have delivered an address to a Meat Industry Research workshop at Ruakura. Preparation for this has severely taxed my knowledge of research directed at the future prosperity of the red meat sector. Depending on the reaction to my presentation, I will almost certainly find out whether or not I have succeeded in talking sense and, more important, introducing some relevant fresh ideas to the audience of scientists and people with infinitely greater technical credentials than I.

Election result should be good for agriculture

Beef+Lamb NZ’s Manifesto which was issued before the Election contains a very concise summary of the red meat sector’s wish list for the next three years, although it doesn’t necessarily include the big elephant in the room of meat industry restructure. But the National government’s attitude on that one is well known and unlikely to change until the industry can present an agreed solution favoured by a majority of industry participants.

 

I contacted Nathan Guy, at present acting Minister of Agriculture, to find out the government’s priorities for the next term and how they dovetailed with the B+LNZ and Federated Farmers manifestos. He responded in some detail, stating satisfaction with the strong support received from rural New Zealand which gave confidence the last government was very much on the right track.

 

Major initiatives would be RMA reform, a strong policy requirement of the Prime Minister, continuing focus on strengthening biosecurity protection, investment in science and innovation which has increased 70% since 2007/8, attracting more young people into careers in agriculture, more free trade deals, an increase in water storage and developing the potential of Maori agriculture.

 

This all seems pretty consistent with the two manifestos, although there will never be enough money to go round all the priorities listed. Feds’ push for $600 million additional investment in science over the next three years with specific reference to the three Centres of Research Excellence which missed out on the last funding round may be a leap too far. $1.5 billion is already committed for next year with a large proportion going towards the primary industries through universities, the Callaghan Institute, the Sustainable Farming Fund, AgResearch and Scion.

 

PGP funding of $708 million has been allocated across 18 different projects with matching industry investment with an assessed potential to generate returns of up to $11 billion by 2025. My impression from Guy was very much the intention to proceed with present policies which all appear to be on track to deliver the desired outcomes.

 

My first question to B+LNZ’s chairman James Parsons was whether he saw any change to current policy settings following National’s re-election as well as whether there were any specific areas where more action and investment were needed.

 

He is very committed to the success of the PGP programme, citing the Red Meat Profit Partnership as a prime example of the benefits from providing a platform from which nine partners – six processors, two banks and B+LNZ – could combine forces; there was no way this would have happened without government funding.

 

One of Parsons’ main concerns is to achieve the goal of the People Powered report produced in July to attract an average of 5000 people a year into the industry. However as the report shows over the next 10 years, the most important factor will not be the absolute number of entrants, but the change in the make up of the workforce. In 2012 44% of the workforce had a tertiary qualification, but this will rise to 62% by 2025.

 

Government response has been to raise subsidies for agricultural degrees at tertiary level or higher, as well as looking to improve information and material available to careers advisers. I suspect this will not be nearly enough on its own to achieve the required rate of increase. It remains a mystery why a career in agriculture, New Zealand’s largest export sector by a country mile, continues to be less attractive than a whole range of other less exciting and productive choices.

 

Other priorities for B+LNZ include environmental policy with a sensible discussion about nutrient allocation, reduced regulation where appropriate, and negotiation of improved trade access agreements with important trading partners where New Zealand is at a disadvantage. Specific examples of priority agreements on tariffs which must be pursued vigorously are Korea and Japan, particularly on beef access, where progress has been slow.

Japan’s commitment to the TPP has stalled over dairy access, while Australia has a sub optimal FTA which provides for reducing beef tariffs, while New Zealand beef tariffs into Korea will be higher than those enjoyed by Canada and Australia from 2015. Non tariff barriers on Chinese imports of beef and green runners and beef to Indonesia are also an issue in need of urgent resolution.

 

Parsons corrected me when I raised the necessity of introducing NAIT for sheep if we are serious about controlling disease outbreaks such as Foot and Mouth. This would impose a conservatively estimated cost of $80 million on sheep farmers to track stock in the event of an incursion of what is a wind borne disease. NAIT is more relevant to food safety than biosecurity problems. An infinitely preferable mechanism for tracking livestock would be the mandated introduction of electronic Animal Status Declarations to avoid the use of paper records, impossible to trace quickly and comprehensively.

 

One topic notable by its absence from the manifesto is a Government Industry Agreement with the meat industry, already signed with the kiwifruit and bee industries. B+LNZ suggests road testing a GIA document for an outbreak of FMD before the industry would be willing to make a commitment.

 

On balance the new government’s agricultural policies appear to correspond to the wishes of the red meat sector which is a good start, built on the solid foundation of the last three years’. At a time when global demand for beef and sheepmeat is robust, this is a good time to emphasise the sector’s importance to our economy.

Red Meat Profit Partnership tries to answer crucial question

Analysis of the objectives and methodology of the RMPP suggests the programme has highlighted the most important issue facing the red meat sector. Briefly stated, it is to work out why there is still such a significant gap between the top farmers and those in the middle of the pack and to lift the average closer to the top performers.

 

When the Red Meat Sector Strategy identified behind the farm gate specifically as a major area of potential improvement, there was much mumbling about why the industry structure wasn’t being more usefully exposed as the area most in need of improvement. But figures released by the B+LNZ Economic Service show this isn’t the case.

 

The most graphic demonstration of this appeared in the RMPP brochure sent out last year. Sheep and beef farmers were grouped in 20% quintiles for comparison and in this table the second to bottom quintile was compared to the top 20%: there was a 3% gap in lamb price achieved, but a staggering difference of 135% between the groups when measured on dollars per lamb and dollars per hectare regardless of the class of farm. To put it simply the top 20% are nearly two and a half times as profitable on a pre tax basis.

 

Obviously the bottom 20% lags even further behind. However this position has improved markedly over the last 20 years with a much greater percentage of farmers moving up the performance scale into a higher quintile. It is tempting to ask how much smaller the national flock would be today, if the level of performance was still stuck at 1991 levels.

 

A great deal of work has already gone into the RMPP, first in preparation for obtaining Primary Growth Partnership funding and second in getting to the stage of signing up the parties to the limited partnership of industry contributors achieved a couple of weeks ago. There is a good cross section of participants including B+LNZ, six meat processors, two banks and Deloitte which have committed to $32.15 million which matches a similar contribution from PGP programme funding.

 

These are not small sums of money which the partners are willing to invest which should hopefully convince sheep and beef farmers that their future prosperity is considered really important. The target is to increase on farm revenue by $880 million and profit by $194 million per year by 2025.

 

The funding programme is designed to be spread over seven years, although Chairman Malcolm Bailey has said he wants to achieve the outcomes faster than that. There are five distinct projects, the first of which – to understand farmer behaviour – is already well under way towards completion before the end of this year.

 

This project is essential for setting a firm platform for the programme as a whole with one set of integrated information. This research seeks to establish across all farming groups barriers to change, what works and doesn’t work in farm extension, and what distinguishes the high performing farmer from the lower performing tiers.

 

The second project focuses on enhancing sector capability, using the banks’ expertise in governance and financial planning, alongside in excess of 80 pilot schemes to be carried out by farm advisors to achieve best practice in breeding, pasture, forage, technical innovation and the development of integrated applied farm systems. An important aspect of this work stream is to attract bright new talent to the meat industry.

 

The third project will concentrate on providing linkage and integration between farm reporting systems which at present are often not properly integrated. This will enable better farm management decision making through benchmarking against regional and national information. Another priority would appear to be teaching sheep and beef farmers the importance of budgeting, because a recent study found that 65% don’t budget, while a further 30% don’t budget effectively which only leaves 5% who do it properly.

 

While the other two projects certainly involve farmers, they also require significant input from other parts of the industry. AsureQuality has the task of ensuring consistency between processors’ QA systems which will make a common set of standards clear to all farmers. This will also enable the achievement of product consistency to meet the expectations of all customers.

 

The final project is one which farmers will no doubt welcome because it is designed to achieve efficiency in the chain linking farmer and processor. Knowing how much unnecessary transport happens at the moment, some of it driven by farmers and some by processors, this area touches on the need for capacity rationalisation which is not the responsibility of the RMPP. Deloitte has accepted responsibility for this piece of work.

 

I am encouraged by the amount of detail and careful planning which underpin this programme because it is of crucial importance to the future of the red meat sector. It demands a great deal of commitment from all the partners, including tax payers, farmers and commercial operators.

 

It won’t happen quickly, but far better to do it properly. Farmers stand to gain a lot from the programme’s successful implementation, but so do the meat companies, banks, all businesses that service or supply the sector, and ultimately New Zealand as a whole.