34 Take the pain out of tax Vol 17 No 40, October 22, 2018
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Super Fund is sure of agri sector Neal Wallace
T
neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz
HE New Zealand Super Fund has spent only a third of the $1.2 billion it has earmarked for Australasian primary sector investments but its holding might now veer from stock to crops and horticulture. So far it has $400 million invested in New Zealand’s and Australia’s primary sectors, mostly in dairy, which shows its confidence in food production. But its NZ direct investment portfolio manager Neil Woods said its 22 dairy and two beef farms could be the extent of its livestock holdings and future investments could be in cropping and horticulture. It already owns a Marlborough vineyard and extensive forestry holdings. As a guide, 3% of the $40 billion fund would be invested in rural land-based industries, equivalent to about $1.2 billion, but a factor in determining investments is whether they are of sufficient size to justify the management cost. The NZ livestock farms are managed by FarmRight and investment has been made upgrading effluent and irrigation systems and installing high standards
of animal welfare and health and safety including a decision to phase out palm kernel feed. Last financial year it added two beef farms in Southland and Hawke’s Bay, which were bought to grow out cull calves bred on the dairy farms and to lessen exposure to Mycoplasma bovis.
NZ is a strong place in which to play because we produce food of high quality. Neil Woods NZ Super Fund Late last year it also took a stake in the Australian beef stud Palgrove, which runs 5000 registered cattle from its base in Queensland but also has livestock and farms in New South Wales. Internationally, the fund has $2.3b invested in forestry and timber industries in NZ, Australia, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Guatemala, Cambodia and via a holding in a separate investment fund, in the United States. Woods said fund managers see
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Patricia’s plight HELP: Calf rearer Patricia Hosking has written an open letter to Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor on behalf of calf rearers asking him to ensure the same protection for calves sold for rearing as is given to bobby calves.
MORE:
Read her letter on page 31.
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