Page 122 - Hereford Magazine 2021

Farming –

New Zealand’s backbone

once again

Waiau Regent 796 with yearling heifers.

Words: Steph Dew for the Southern Districts Hereford Club Tourism NZ has stated that prior to Covid-19, 60% or $23.7
billion of New Zealand’s tourism expenditure came from ‘New
teady and reliable, New Zealand’s farmers have Zealanders getting out and experiencing their own country.
always toiled away quietly in the background doing New Zealanders also previously spent $9 billion on overseas
what we know and doing it well. It took a crisis travel per year. Capturing a portion of this spend domestically
for many to acknowledge and appreciate the large while our borders are closed will be critical to the sector’s
Spart we do play in our country’s economy, and recovery.’ Their focus for now is to support the domestic
we feel some of the lack of respect shown in recent times tourism market and to keep the brand alive internationally.
towards our sector by the government and urban dwellers The media wasn’t quite singing our praises, but the
has been repaired for a while. It was the silver lining during criticism towards the rural sector that had become more
the time of crisis, while our competitor for the top spot as frequent, along with the talk of absurd regulations, did
New Zealand’s largest export industry, the highly celebrated quieten down when the economy was hit by the crisis. As
tourism sector, has seen the largest economic hit imaginable. farmers we were greatly unscathed by the lockdown and
Queenstown and Te Anau are major destinations in our carried on with life as usual, realising how lucky we were.
region that rely heavily on the tourism industry for business For our Southern Hereford Club, it meant the cancellation of
and employment. The businesses that remained open have the pre bull sale bull tour. It was disappointing to miss the
been crippled by the impact of the overnight evaporation opportunity to see our breeders’ lineups and to spend time
of international visitors when borders were closed in in each other’s company. I am sure by the end of the two-day
March 2020. The foreseeable future remains unknown to tour we could have come up with plenty of suggestions for
these businesses, and they continue to operate with this the government from the back seat of the bus as to how the
uncertainty hanging over them. On the upside, tourism- Covid-19 crisis could be solved.
reliant businesses in New Zealand are lucky to still be The real impact on our businesses hit with the lowered
operating, with movement permitted between regions. Due killing capacity at the freezing works just as beef animals
to the containment we have had to date with the virus, it has were coming onstream for the season. There was immense
allowed domestic tourism to continue, which has meant the pressure on both our major operators, Alliance and Silver
forecasted financial crisis has been at a much lower level Fern Farms, to cope both with the capacity demand and
than predicted. the competent management of the situation. There were

120 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2021