Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 20 December 2023
Christmas spirit ringing for mall Santa GORDON PREECE
“I’m old and chubby, I’ve got a beard and a good laugh,” were the qualities one of the four Richmond Mall Santas believed he had to suit up for the role. ‘Santa Mark’ says he has always loved the holiday season and seeing Santa during his childhood, and when news broke that New Zealand’s shopping malls were suffering Santa shortages, he contacted Richmond Mall to fill any potential Santa space. “‘It’s Christmas, everybody should see Santa… I met all the prerequisites, I’m old and chubby and I’ve got a beard and a good laugh, so it fits my character,” he says.
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‘Santa Mark’ is one of the four Santas at the Richmond Mall this year. Photo: Gordon Preece.
Egg shortage over, for now ANNE HARDIE The shortage of eggs is over, with the national hen population increasing by half a million hens this year. Don’t expect prices to come down though, as Egg Producers Federation of New Zealand executive director Michael Brooks says the
cost of producing an egg has also increased dramatically. The Government gave the industry 10 years to phase out battery cages and egg producers have gone through massive change in their transition to free range, barn or colony. The new systems are more expensive to run and Michael says the cost of feeding hens
has hiked. For Ewing Poultry, the past few years has meant transitioning from their caged system in Hope where they had 87,000 hens, to Quail Valley where they now have 65,000 hens, with the majority free-range and 20,000 in barns. Paul and Jill Ewing say the transition has been a major project,
especially with Covid-19 adding stumbling blocks to get the buildings and systems completed, plus skyrocketing prices for the build. Grain prices have increased “massively” and the new systems are far more labour intensive which make it a lot more expensive to produce an egg, Paul says. Though higher production costs
have increased the price of eggs, Jill says eggs are still good value for the protein they contain compared with other products. The Ewings say egg production is “quite a different business” now and a far cry from the family business begun in Hope by Paul’s
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