Last week’s call by Horticulture New Zealand for the Reserve Bank to hold off on another rise in the
Official Cash Rate has been ignored. “Obviously the Reserve Bank has no real interest in supporting the Government’s aims in this socalled
Export Year”, says Horticulture New Zealand President Andrew Fenton.
“Our Government’s enthusiasm to develop an innovationlead,
technologyfocused
sector is a farce.
“Basically, if you are not involved in the dairy industry, nobody cares if you remain in the export
business or not in this country,” Andrew says.
“We say again and again, horticulture exports contribute $2.5 billion to New Zealand’s economy, and
a large proportion of that is spent in rural communities.
“This rise will simply make our industry uncompetitive. It is unsustainable and is creating an
unbalanced economy.
“We are living in a dreamland,” Andrew says.
About 60% of New Zealand’s total horticultural production is exported. The remaining 40% is sold to
a domestic market which enjoys some of the world’s best quality homegrown
produce.
“We can only repeat what we said last week, and we will go on saying it as
a nation we are totally
reliant on exports. When the value of exports declines, so does our standard of living, for all New
Zealanders,” he says.
www.hortnz.co.nz |
