Farmers revel in beef and lamb prices

By LIAM DANN, primary industries editor

Strong international prices for New Zealand beef and lamb continue to buffer the sector from the impact of the high kiwi dollar.

Meat & Wool New Zealand chief executive Mark Jeffries says international demand for beef and lamb is good and appears stable in the short to medium term at least.

There was now hope among producers that the golden run on international markets could continue long enough for farmers to cash in as the dollar falls, he said.

Jeffries said there was an upbeat mood at the organisation's annual meeting in Whangarei last week.

The sector was politically unified and supply projections were in place for the next three years.

"There is considerable industry co-operation."

By consistently exporting top-quality meat, producers had ensured that international demand was not wilting despite the higher prices their product now commanded.

"New Zealand meat and wool are the envy of producers around the world," he said.

"They are New Zealand caviar."

Hopefully the dollar - trading at just below 65USc yesterday - was now on its way down, he said.

Westpac senior currency strategist Johnathan Bayley is picking that the dollar will climb back up to at least 68USc.

He said further weakening of the US dollar - probably by about 10 per cent - was expected before the end of the year.

Whether the kiwi returned to 70USc highs depended largely on how far the US dollar fell.

But there was a good chance that the kiwi had peaked on the trade weighted index, he said.

"There's still scope for it to trade back up to 71USc. But the longer we spend down here [at 65USc] the less likely that looks."