Less red tape will lower food production costs

Give farmers more certainty, and less impractical regulation, and they’ll continue to deliver for export earnings and New Zealand’s economy.

I think that’s the headline message to take from our latest Farm Confidence Survey.

It’s telling that a third of farmers named cutting regulation and compliance costs as their number one priority for the next government to deal with.

That level of concern outstripped the second and third-ranked priorities, economic and fiscal policy changes, by a country mile.

For the politicians of all stripes who are ramping up their electioneering and making policy announcements – take note.

The key ask from farmers is to finish what has been started.

Lock in Resource Management Act reforms, continue to simplify consents and audits, and rein in council powers.

The current Government has done a good job of responding to Federated Farmers’ calls to slash red tape and get Wellington out of farming. But the survey shows farmers are worried the November election result could undo progress.

When farmers are doing well, it means our provinces and rural towns benefit too.

The Feds survey shows the number of farms in profit – 72% – is the highest in a decade, with fewer than one in 20 making a loss.

That’s a huge turnaround from just a few years ago, when high interest rates, low commodity prices and sky-high input costs made it really hard for farmers to earn a living.

Strong returns are back for dairy, sheep and beef.  The farming sector – with the exception of arable – is a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economy.

But there’s real anxiety about whether the good times will hold.

Confidence in current economic conditions is strong, but sentiment over the 12-month outlook heads sharply downhill.

Nearly 30% of farmers expect conditions to worsen, compared with only 12% expecting improvement.

Fuel, fertiliser, freight, insurance and other costs are ratcheting up faster than returns, and farmers have limited ability to pass these costs on.  That’s farmers’ No. 1 concern.

Despite the pessimism about the year ahead, more than half of farmers plan to increase on-farm spending, and many expect to lift production. 

To stay on track with those gains, we encourage all political parties to take on board our five-point plan to double farm productivity, cut costs and improve the environment.

One of our asks is for 10 new national permitted activity standards to be passed by whichever parties form the next government within their first year in office.

Such standards – covering such things as vegetable growing, solar installations and water storage - would enable farmers and growers to get on with on-farm work if they meet set criteria, without the delay and cost of obtaining resource consents.

We’ve created a crazy system where getting permission to do sensible things on your own property can take months or even years, and cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Those costs flow through the supply chain all the way to our supermarket shelves.

National permitted activity standards would provide much-needed consistency and certainty while keeping environmental safeguards in place.

The benefits to all New Zealanders in terms of lower costs of putting food on the table, ability for farmers to spend more in their provincial communities, and from export earnings, are obvious.

Colin Hurst is President Federated Farmers of New Zealand