Ewen-Street Ian: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Ewen-Street Ian: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:624;Page:19414] 
IAN EWEN-STREET (Green) 
: 
 We can see from the financial review that by and large agriculture is doing pretty well in this country despite the high dollar. In this environment it is easy to be complacent but I think we have to be aware that there are some worrying signs on the horizon. It is clear that milk solids are still very competitive internationally but that is virtually the only commodity that is so. It also will face some serious crises in the future and we need to be thinking about them now. 
Let us look at our niche markets in agriculture that are doing exceptionally well. Let us look at wine. Internationally there is a wine glut. In many places one can get only about $2 a litre for wine. Has that had the remotest impact on New Zealand wine? The answer is no. New Zealand wine is doing very well. The reason for that is quality. We produce the best wine in the world. Let us look at kiwifruit. Zespri has marketed itself extremely well. It has gone for low chemical inputs and high-quality products. It is doing very well. Let us look at Saxon wool. The bottom has fallen out of the merino market. Saxon is at the top end of the range. It is doing exceptionally well. We do quality well. 
We need also to be aware that consumers are becoming very aware of things other than appearance and taste in food. They are concerned about pollution animal welfare chemical residues and “food miles” which is a major problem for us as a little island in the South Pacific. Clean green food products are what New Zealand does well. We have been doing them for many years and that is the way we have marketed ourselves for many years. 
I urge members to look at the report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment entitled  
Growing for Good 
 because it has highlighted a number of difficulties that New Zealand farmers will face in the future. We can see those problems as barriers to growth and development or we can see them as opportunities. I think we need to look at them as opportunities. For dairy farmers effluent runoff and fertiliser runoff have become significant social and environmental negatives. But we can turn to balancing fertiliser inputs. We can fence off riparian margins and plant them with trees. Those may be expensive things in the short term but they are a great medium-term investment. 
We also need to look at natural events. The storms in the Manawatu and Whanganui last year caused enormous slips in the high country at the headwaters of streams. There were huge sediment dumps in the lower reaches of many of the rivers. We need to identify those marginal lands—and almost all of them have been identified—and retire them from grazing because grass simply cannot hold the soil together. The areas need to be replanted. If those areas along with riparian margins are reforested it will slow down the amount and velocity of runoff. 
But fundamental to farming in this country is economics. That is what it is all about. As a country we earn 65 percent of our export income from primary production. As farmers we have to be aware that the focus is moving away from productivity and on to quality. No longer do we have to say that every blade of grass counts. We need to farm smarter. The people who are doing very well are the people who emphasise quality. Again we should look at what is happening with producers of wine kiwifruit and Saxon wool. They are smart operators who are striving for quality. They leave no stone unturned and they are doing exceptionally well. 
Dairying cannot be complacent. Farmers are doing well at the moment but there are big problems ahead. Consumers are increasingly concerned about pollution runoff effluent and the way farmers treat their animals. As a farmer I am aware that it is often not popular to consider doing things differently. There is a lot of peer pressure in farming to continue doing the things we have always done. But we have to think about the pressure that consumers can bring to bear on us. Let us look at what happened to the Australian meat industry when it was discovered by consumers overseas that farmers were mulesing their sheep. I will not go into what mulesing is all about but it became a huge issue in terms of the pressure on Australian farmers.