Generally profit levels exceeded farmers' earlier expectations, and farmer morale and confidence about the short-term future is very high. The exceptions to this include pipfruit, which continues to struggle, as well as arable, potato, onion and squash growers, who have not received higher product prices. The gap in business performance between the top and bottom farmers continues to widen. Farm monitoring is a process whereby MAF monitors the production, trends, issues and sector concerns on New Zealand farms. The expectations and intentions of farmers, and those servicing the sector are analysed and presented as a model farm.
Many farmers believe that inadequate and misdirected research is happening in New Zealand.
They say that primary industries are the one bright area in an otherwise lacklustre economy, yet research money continues to be directed into IT projects. Farmers believe New Zealand should build on its competitive advantage, which they see as the primary sector. Farmers question the long-term viability of organic farming from both a production and marketing perspective. There are nine monitoring reports this year. To learn more about the contents of the reports, attend the public release of the documents on Monday by the Hon Jim Sutton, Minister of Agriculture.