New apple ‘Dazzles’ Chinese consumers :
New Zealand’s largest organic apple producer says it cannot keep up with the Chinese demand for New Zealand’s newest apple, Dazzle.
Bostock New Zealand owner John Bostock says Dazzle is the best apple he has ever grown organically in his 30 years of growing organic apples.
“Without any doubt, I believe this is the best apple since the worldwide domination of New Zealand Royal Gala. It looks and tastes amazing, it’s bright red and sweet and it also yields and packs well.”
It’s the first year the company has had commercial volumes of organic Dazzle apples available for Chinese retailers. . .
Nats hit the rural hustings – Mark Daniel:
National’s Waikato team of David Bennett and Tim van der Molen have been spreading the party word at a series of farmer meetings around the region.
Bennett, now the party’s agriculture spokesman, following Todd Muller’s recent move to leader, focused on the issues likely to affect agriculture. He claimed National’s ag polices aimed to drive momentum.
Starting out by commending the current Government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bennett raised the question of how New Zealand will pay its bills in the future. He intimidated that the current Labour/NZ First coalition’s policies were reactionary, rather than visionary.
With all the major political parties agreeing that sustainable agriculture, horticulture and viticulture will be vital in a post-Covid future, Bennett suggested that the current drive for sustainability needs to be addressed. . .
Honey business finds sweet spot – Colin Williscroft:
When James Annabell’s budding rugby career wasn’t quite going the way he hoped the former Taranaki Bulls hooker put his drive into honey, which has led to the development of a multimillion dollar business, as Colin Williscroft reports.
James Annabell was back in Taranaki on a break from playing rugby in Hong Kong when the chance that changed his life came along.
He’d already tried a law degree in Wellington and played rugby for Taranaki from 2006 to 2008.
But there was no regional contract on offer the following year so he went to Hong Kong and Germany to continue with rugby. . .
Adventure, experience affords view of pig picture – George Clark:
From his travels and experience in pig farming, Ian Jackson knew he was going to breed pigs in the open air.
A Scot by birth, he was brought up on a pig and poultry farm in the UK. Uninterested in poultry, he specialised in pigs at Usk Agricultural College.
After working in the UK pig industry, he was eager to see the world and set off on an adventure with a tent on his back, wandering across Europe and then to Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Jackson met Kiwi wife Linda 21 years ago this month. She had never lived on a farm and did not know anything about pigs. . .
Food service finds new pathway – Hugh Stringleman:
A refreshed strategy for its food service business is being introduced by Fonterra to counter the disruption caused by covid-19 to eating out in restaurants and hotels.
Food service revenue is bouncing back, especially in the number one market of China, but positioning has changed, Asia and the Pacific chief executive Judith Swales told a webinar for Fonterra shareholders.
Covid-19 has accelerated trends already apparent in the market like more home cooking, outsourcing in food preparation, more home delivery and investment in digital and contactless technologies. . .
Planting trees to fight climate change ‘ not best strategy’ :
Mass tree planting to mitigate climate change is ‘not always the best strategy’ – with some experimental sites failing to increase carbon stocks, researchers say.
Four locations in Scotland where birch trees were planted onto heather moorland was analysed as part of a new study involving UK scientists.
They found that, over decades, there was no net increase in ecosystem carbon storage.
The team found that any increase to carbon storage in tree biomass was offset by a loss of carbon stored in the soil. . .
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