Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has appointed a dedicated ministerial role for organics for the first time. Associate Minister for Agriculture Mike Butterick is taking on the position alongside a new associate role covering arable, water security and storage, Māori agribusiness, and catchment groups.
Butterick says the organics sector generates about $1.2 billion with about $600 million in export receipts. Organic dairy farmers supplying Fonterra receive a per-kilogram premium above conventional returns, and that pricing signal is what drives participation.
“If you can grow that market, incentivise people, and say, ‘Look, the choice is yours, it’s not a compulsion,’ I think there are huge opportunities,” he says.
About 50% of organic growers earn less than $30,000, Butterick says, which reflects the scale of farmers’ markets and small suppliers alongside more commercial operators supplying export chains.
Arable is a $2.2 billion domestic contributor and on track to export about $350 million, he says. New Zealand supplies about 40% of the world’s carrot seed, about 50% of the world’s white clover, and a bit more than half of the world’s radish seed.
“Put very simply, you are not going to produce a litre of milk or a kilo of lamb chops without somebody growing that grain, growing that new tetraploid grass and all those good things.
“You’re not going to do that without those arable guys.”
He says representation is the core issue for the sector. It lacks the advocacy presence of beef and lamb or DairyNZ, and his role is to remedy that.
“Part of my role is to be their champion, be their voice, go and engage and actually listen to them.”
The Organic New Zealand board has not ruled out GE, Butterick says, but wants more discussion before any position firms.
“I think there’s a whole lot of confusion about what GE is.
“Some of the words are very emotive… It is not about that.
“It’s about having an adult conversation about a scientific tool that could potentially grow more, earn more, and solve some of our challenges.”
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