Rabobank Best of The Country: July 15, 2023

File photo / NZME

This week on the Best of The Country, Jamie Mackay caught up with Rabobank’s chief executive Todd Charteris, to take a look at the bank’s latest Rural Confidence Survey.

The week's top interviews were:

Emma Poole:

We yarned with the inspirational 2023 FMG Young Farmer of the Year, who finally broke the grass ceiling after 55 years. A vet, a dairy farmer, a mum and now the most celebrated farmer in the land.

Todd Charteris:

The chief executive of Rabobank commented on the bank’s latest Rural Confidence Survey that saw farmer sentiment inching higher but remaining deep in the mire, with net confidence reading rising from -57 per cent, from -58 per cent previously.

Winston Peters:

We asked a former Foreign Minister if our newly-inked FTA with the European Union was a good one, or are the Aussies right. Had there been hyperbole in Northland and are the polls wrong? Who is the real “Coalition of Chaos” and was Winston re-writing history?

Jane Smith:

She’s an outspoken North Otago farmer and award-winning environmentalist. But is she being muzzled for speaking out on behalf of farmers? And was she offered the baubles of office by an Ag sector leader if she towed the party line? Is she a modern-day rural Joan of Arc? Or just a nuisance?

Todd McClay: 

National’s Agriculture and Trade spokesman had his say on the EU FTA, the stupidity of winter grazing regulations in Southland, and what he was seeing on the ground in cyclone-devastated Hawke’s Bay.

Listen below: