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Report Year: 2002

Maintaining paradise : trusting a biotechnology future

There is no doubt that New Zealand is a biodiverse-exporting nation. The agricultural sector accounts for some 66% of New Zealand’s export earnings The international marketplace is both highly restrictive and competitive, and our competitors are gaining on our competitive advantage annually.

Biotechnology has the potential to offer New Zealand, and in particular the primary sector considerable opportunities.

Biotechnology is a set of precise and powerful set of tools, which is often misunderstood. It is the precision and control, of these tools, and the manipulation of genes that excite scientists. It is also this same excitement that concerns some. However there is no evidence to date that the technology is harmful.

Various surveys around the world have measured various acceptance of biotechnology, ranging from acceptance on a case-by-case basis to total rejection. Consumer attitude to acceptance of biotechnology often stems back to deep personal values. There is evidence that the more people are educated, are informed and have contact with biotechnology, the more accepting they are of it.

The consumers, generally distrusts, organisations, that are perceived to have vested interests in biotechnology, to a point that they expect to be exploited. Believing that organisations overstate the benefits and understate the risks.

The public needs to take responsibility themselves, to ensure to the best of their ability information they are exposed to is from substantiated researched evidence.

Organisations need to involve the public in the debate and submission system, this will lead it improved trust. . Trust is very easily lost but harder to build.

New Zealand has through the Environmental and Risk Management Authority, one of the strongest regulatory bodies in the world. With improvements made from recommendation from the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification outcome, gives rigorous assessment for application approval.

The Environmental and Risk Management Authority should be independent, transparent and well funded to achieve the most effective outcomes, for New Zealand’s best interest. The Environmental and Risk Management Authority should earn the right from the public to be trusted and not assume it has public trust of right.

New Zealand’s high values give it a unique opportunity to continue to be world leaders, as a competitive global marketeer.

Paradise then becomes an individual perception.

Murray Jagger

Farm gate marketing options for dairy and meat products

Currently when marketing farm products the farmer has a choice between; direct or indirect selling, (or perhaps a combination of the two). Indirect selling is the most used option at present, selling produce to another party who process it, thereby adding value and who then sell the processed items on. Direct selling gives the producer opportunities for direct consumer contact and enables them to process and add value to their own product.

There is a need for producers to realise that they are not in the livestock or dairy industry but in the “food business”. While it is common to hear similar rhetoric from leading meat processors their actions do not appear to support their words. The Meat industry remains a personality driven, divided sector (where either the primary producer or the processors are making money) while the dairy sector is dominated by a virtual monopoly.

The findings of this research are local to South Auckland. The options that are available to the individual producer will vary according to the locality of the farm.

Robert Lyons

Beware Partnerships

Beware ofpartnerships! Some partnerships can be an excellent vehicle for a business and its owners to achieve their goals. However, sometimes they are inappropriate and can be detrimental to the success of the business and its owners. It is essential to those people considering partnerships that the initial optimism and positive feelings they have towards each other do not blind them to the need for rational thought and consideration of the future ramifications of a decision to enter into a partnership.

This paper will set out:

  1. Why the reasons many people become partners in business may be invalid.
  2. That if, after due consideration, a partnership is still appropriate, why and how an exit strategy should be developed before entering into that partnership.

This subject is of personal interest to me, as my wife and I are in a successful farming business together, and we intend to be involved in business with others in the future. In the past we were also involved in a family farm partnership. While the family farming business was successful, the eventual end and division of the family partnership was difficult. We initially had been advised to “plan how we were going to get out of business together before we went into business together”. However, the agreement we entered in an atmosphere of optimism and good will was very difficult to execute years later under more strained circumstances.

Since then I have often had the opportunity to talk to other people who have been in, or are going into, business with family or friends. It has surprised me that in many of these cases very little consideration has been given to possible alternatives, or how they would eventually exit the partnership.

My experience, and that of others, has indicated that there is a lack of motivation by people considering partnerships to investigate alternatives, and exit plans. This paper is intended to provoke those people to take the time to fully consider the issues.

Please note that I am using the word partnership here in the broadest sense, i.e. to quote the Oxford Dictionary, “a person associated with others in business of which he shares risks and profits”. The actual legal ownership structure may be a company, a trust or a partnership.

John Ford