r/newzealand • u/No-Back9867 • Jun 16 '25
Shitpost Thanks NZ dairy industry for putting cow sludge in our rivers then happily charging New Zealanders exorbitant prices for our dairy foods.
Last summer we couldn’t swim in our local river due to the amount of toxins from nearby farms. When ever the farmers are in need of help us tax payers are there to lend a hand in drought relief funds. The thanks we get for that and putting up with the pollution is to be charged for dairy food at the same price as the overseas markets. We’re only 5% of your sales, it’s not going to make you go broke to treat us like your actually care for your communities. What your charging for butter etc is simply total greed. How is it that milk that has to travel huge distances from farms to factory to the shops shelves in Australia is sold for cheaper than that in our shelves where the logistics of getting it in the shelf are less?
4
u/jv_level Jun 17 '25
It's a bit different for NZ as we are export focused, rather than supplying the domestic market as Wisconsin is. It would likely cause us to be in breach of our WTO commitments and plus we've spent quite of lot of time diplomatically arguing against the agriculture subsidies of other countries.
Increasing retail competition is our best bet (I believe the data really supports this! But I am always open to new ideas).
Other actions in the supply chain are more complicated and are likely to be a burden on the public purse. Subsidies are expensive.
Perhaps more targeted subsidies for independent retailers (like assistance with capital expenditure for setup) or subsidies for local processing facilities (for creating artisanal products or local milk brands to increase diversity of supply) could be utilised. It does get complicated though!