Richard Moore: Forgot one-basket rule

This country has been too reliant for too long on the dairy industry.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

How many times have each of us been told that by older and wiser heads?

And it is true. When investing, or setting up a business, or planning for the future the last thing to do is put everything you have on to one hope.

It's obvious why - if that singular investment goes belly up then you have lost everything.

For a number of years, many observers have been saying this country is too reliant on the dairy industry.

Politicians and industry people scoffed, saying dairy was the shining light of New Zealand's "rock star" economy - and while prices were going through the roof folk like myself were in a small minority.

Dairy farmers gladly grabbed the dollars coming their way, the Government saw the boom as a panacea for New Zealand's hidden economic shortcomings and it made them look good.

Nothing else seemed to matter, particularly our environmental protector, the Resource Management Act, which the Government sought (and is seeking) to destroy so it could intensify an already unsustainable dairy industry.

The short-term dollars looked good but, by placing dairy on a pedestal so far above other key earners, the Government forgot the one-basket rule.

New Zealand's biggest asset is the perception of it being clean and green. Most of us accept that is an advertising fallacy but it does put a premium on to food exports.

It also helps attract tourists here and tourism is closing very fast on dairy as the top money earner.

And tourism is one of those industries that is sustainable from today until the world's end.

Dairy is now being hammered by fierce competition. So much so that prices for milk solids have been driven down to about $4.50 a kilo from $8 not that long ago.

Experts predict the auction price could drop as low as $3.70 which, for farmers and this nation, spells disaster with a capital D. To break even, farmers need to sell milk solids at $5.70. For each drop of $1/kg in the milk price means there is $2 billion less income for dairy farmers.

I know politicians and public servants are not the sharpest tools in the shed but, surely, someone must have been raising the warning flags in Wellington?

Like when Chinese interests started buying up farmland in this country. Even worse, when NZ know-how and hands-on experience - the crucial advantages over dairy rivals - were being delivered to China on a silver platter.

To me that was economic treachery.

Why help the country's number one dairy market start to feed itself the goods we are trying to sell them?

And let's not even go into the ability of China to scale up dairy production very quickly leaving NZ with a massive amount of milk to try to find new markets for.

Speaking of which, did no one at a high level here think that the Europeans and North Americans would take long in joining in the dairy gold rush?

That's one of the reasons why the milk solid price has collapsed, those powerful dairy blocs have got their acts together and have flooded the marketplace.

Those in charge of this country should be dragged over the coals for their arrogant myopia but, as usual, they will avoid the fallout.

The people who will pay for their going missing in action are dairy farmers and regional towns, whose small agricultural suppliers will face a bleak Christmas.

So what will the Government do? Probably have a crackdown on beneficiaries.

It seems I have spent most of the past three months in airports or train stations and they are the perfect places to observe folk.

I like listening for the announcements of "final call for passengers X and Y" and then seeing them sprint for the boarding gate a minute or so later trailing carry-on luggage and duty free bags in their wake.

I keep hoping to hear a joke name being used, but it seems the announcers have grown wise to the likes of Aaron Thetires (air in the tyres), Alex Blaine Layder (I'll Explain Later) and Ariel Hassle (A Real Hassle).

However, a real name did have me grinning like a Cheshire Cat at Brisbane Airport the other week.

It was a call for an extremely late passenger and he was being given the "your bags will be unloaded" message.

His name? Mr Luke Faraway ...

A short time later, in a pre-flight visit to the boys room, I went in at the same time as a dad and his youngster.

The boy was being naughty because his dad was unable to leave the job in hand to grab him.

While washing my hands, I thought thank goodness my kids are grown up.

Then, in that haven for germs, I heard a father's horrified plea that almost had me collapsing into the sink.

It went like this ...

"Oscar! Stop licking the mirror." Then he added. "And don't tell your mother."

Richard@richardmoore.com

-Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer