Leadership initiative to harvest agriculture talent

Up and coming executives in the food and fibre industry will get a boost from a new leadership training programme.

The initiative, launched this month, will provide young leaders in the agriculture sector with first-hand experience, says former Richmond chairman Sam Robinson, who heads the programme's sponsor, the Agmardt Trust.

The food and agribusiness market experience programme - Fame - will take participants into key export markets to observe world-class production, delivery and marketing systems. It is a joint venture between Otago, Massey and Lincoln Universities, and will be offered every two years.

Agmardt invests about $2.5 million every year in people or ideas that will create and deliver value to New Zealand agribusiness.

It was set up by the Crown in 1987 as a non-profit trust with funds of $32 million from the wind-up of the British, Christmas Island and New Zealand Phosphate Commissions.

"Our sole agenda is to develop and encourage leadership capability and skills, and market, business and technological innovation," Robinson said.

The Fame programme would sustain the vision of former Agmardt chairman and agribusiness leader, Alistair Betts, who died after a short illness at the end of last year.