KEY POINTS:
The economy has been pushed to the top of the election agenda thanks to the global financial meltdown.
And when you talk about the economy in New Zealand to a large extent you're talking agriculture.
The sector had picked up the unwarranted and unhelpful tag of being a sunset industry but in more recent times has again been recognised for what it is - a massive earner, sucking billions of foreign dollars into New Zealand.
The dairy industry alone accounted for 27 per cent of national exports in the year to May, with Fonterra making up 25 per cent and distributing $9.1 billion to farmers last season.
How do we maintain, or better still, raise our standard of living?
The simple equation is: take raw material, add value and sell it overseas for more money.
This rule applies whether you're talking products, services, cows or computers.
If we're not adding value we're simply pushing money around.
Research and development is a fundamental source of adding value from new or improved products and processes.
Jim Watson, chairman of the 11-member National Science Panel, said last month that concerns identified in the 2007 OECD report meant New Zealand was falling behind global competitors in investment in research, science and technology.
Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Finland and Singapore had invested more in their science systems, which was reflected in economic growth relative to the OECD mean.
If you're not moving forward you're standing still, and in the modern industrial world standing still means you're going backwards relative to the competition.
So how the respective political contenders keep New Zealand moving forward and innovating is vitally important.
The Government launched its $700 million Fast Forward fund back in March aimed at food and pastoral industries and is expected to grow to about $1 billion during 10 to 15 years with interest.
When matched by private industry dollars the total available for investment could be up to $2 billion.
The National Party now says it will scrap the fund but will replace it with an extra $70 million of funding a year.
The Fast Forward fund was well received, but National's plan does not appear to be generating any great panic - probably because the key concern is the money.
If National's plan does match or better Labour's fund, then the view will be what's the difference as long as the money comes in and the research gets done.
The political arguments and counter arguments will fly with so much at stake, probably to the point where most people won't know who to believe.
It is an election year so hard-ball politics is to be expected.
Just so long as when the dust settles the investments are made and the vital job of innovating New Zealand Inc gets a boost.
FERTILISER FALL
Falling commodity prices in some sectors will cut returns from exports, but on the plus side fertiliser commodity prices are also softening.
Bill McLeod, chairman of fertiliser company Ravensdown, said at the co-operative's recent annual meeting that sulphur prices had collapsed by hundreds of dollars.
The drop came after a year of phenomenal rises on the back of increased global demand for fertiliser to feed developing nations and grow bio-fuel crops.
"This is having a similar flow-on effect on [diammonium phosphate], and prices of phosphate rock and urea are also reducing," McLeod says.
"We are yet to see these reductions in the prices we're paying for raw materials, however this correction is very welcome and we will pass on savings to farmers as soon as possible."
Farmers could see lower prices after Christmas.
The international commodity price for sulphur increased over the last 18 months or so from about US$45 to peak at US$800 a tonne, and has now dropped back to US$300. Diammonium phosphate went from US$260 to peak at US$1200, and dropped back to US$1000; potash has risen from US$190 to US$900; and urea rose from US$200 to peak at about US$830, and has fallen back to US$500.
Statistics New Zealand says the amount of superphosphate used here increased from 541,557 tonnes in 1986 to 1.26 million tonnes in 2006.
Ravensdown's current price for superphosphate is $560 a tonne - more than double the $264 a tonne price in December.
Prices have been met with buyer resistance, and supplies of sulphur have increased, although consolidation among potash suppliers means they do not bow to pressure.
A Chinese export tax of 135 per cent had stopped China being a player in urea and diammonium phosphate markets but the tax is up for review at the end of the year.
If the tax is reduced, market supplies could increase and put more downward pressure on prices.
The overall ANZ Commodity Price Index dropped 4.9 per cent in September - the sharpest fall in 21 years. The falling kiwi softened the drop to 0.9 per cent in New Zealand dollars.
"Fertiliser commodity prices are softening, we have sufficient hedging to offset the drop in currency and exploration of Ravensdown's New Zealand-based phosphate deposit is extremely positive," McLeod says.
"Everything we buy is in US dollars, and our comprehensive hedging guarantees the drop in the currency will not have a negative impact on fertiliser prices in the immediate future."
Ravensdown could become self-sufficient in phosphate rock - which now costs more than US$500 a tonne - for decades if reserves in Otago prove economically viable.
McLeod says the deposit is looking extremely interesting.
Ravensdown has agreement from Milton farmers to explore rock reserves last mined in the 1940s on Clarendon Hill.
Based on 1989 data, the estimated 500ha site could hold 34 million tonnes of rock - enough to last 22 years.
Cheaper fertiliser? Smells good.
WINNING WINES
As stock markets take a beating and the value of share portfolios slides, some people may turn to the bottle - but perhaps not for a drink.
Sydney-based Andrew Caillard - auctioneer and expert on wine investment - says premium wine is still an alternative investment despite the global financial crisis.
Provided you know what you are doing.
"Wine can and has out-performed many blue-chip shares over the last two decades, but you need to buy the right wine from the right vintage and store it in the right way to stand any chance of making money," Caillard says.
"So you need a sound investment strategy and accurate market intelligence in order to elevate your wine collecting from a mere hobby to a serious growth element in your portfolio."
Investing in wine can be a serious business.
Caillard is involved in a wine fund which has invested more than ¬100 million ($227 million) mostly in Bordeaux and a bit of Burgundy.
Some people have lost their shirts investing in wine, but if you choose carefully it can good, he says.
"It is a genuine alternative asset but it's also a very specialised one," Caillard says.
"We've been through a few of these cycles before where we've seen massive market downturns and then subsequent recessions, and the thing about the wine market and top wines is they do hold their value because in the end a lot of these wines are limited products."
But it doesn't have to be a big investment.
"The lovely thing about wine is that they come in units, which is called bottles, and so you can literally put in a couple of hundred dollars or you can put in thousands of dollars," he says.
"I think the main point about buying and selling and trading wine is that you've really got to enjoy it."
And if you get bored trading it, you can always drink the stuff.
Caillard is the author of the recently released The Rewards of Patience - Penfolds' authoritative text on its wines.
The book was written after a four-day tasting session of more than 600 bottles of wine from Penfolds' museum - spanning six decades and worth more than A$1 million ($1.10 million).
Quite a drinking session, and at that price probably not many spillages.
