The combination of good weather and higher yield – up by about 10 percent – has not been enough to meet to the shortfall.
“It’s certainly costing farmers more, there’s a lot more farmers who will be making a loss this year.”
None more so than maize growers on the North Island’s east coast, where harvest is about to get underway.
“The contracts are back probably about $150 a tonne and last year’s stuff hasn’t been picked up in a lot of cases,” Federated Farmers Gisborne-Wairoa president Toby Williams said.
This has created storage issues, with cheaper product coming in from Ukraine and fewer dairy farmers adding grain to their feed.
Some crops also had to be replanted multiple times in flood-damaged paddocks late last year.
“Yields are back a bit on what you’d expect because of the late planting so guys are really struggling with that but we’re really hoping they get something off, the last two or three years they’ve had nothing at all.
“These growers need a win, they need something to get them going, because if they don’t get well paid this year or they don’t get paid… they won’t be back next year.”
The next three months is crucial to how the next three years could look.