Speaking at the Irish Farmers Journal/KPMG webinar to launch the 2021 Agribusiness report, Ian Proudfoot, global head of agriculture for KPMG, told the audience that he expects New Zealand will conclude a tariff and quota free deal with the UK, but is less confident that a similar type of deal will be secured with the EU.

New Zealand, as well as Australia, has been in negotiation with the UK since June last year to agree a trade deal.

As a result, he expects a significant increase in sales of New Zealand dairy produce to the UK market.

Dependence

He suggested that concern is growing in New Zealand about the level of exposure to the Chinese market and recalled how New Zealand was hit by dependency on the UK in 1973 when Ireland and the UK joined the then Common Market.

Pursuing trade negotiations with the UK and EU is designed to counteract over dependency on a single market.

Proudfoot said he is also concerned that while New Zealand has had outstanding success in controlling COVID-19, the country is now in a bubble while the rest of the world is getting vaccinated and beginning the process of returning to normal.

Proudfoot added that: “We have two ways to raise revenue [in New Zealand] – we sell food and have tourists, and tourists aren’t there at present.”

That leaves food exports, which are mainly agriculture based, and being unable to travel puts businesses at a disadvantage.