Climate resilience is back on the agenda — literally.
KPMG has released its 2025 agribusiness agenda which drew on insights from nearly 200 industry leaders and outlined their priorities.
Biosecurity remained the number one priority, for the 15th consecutive year, but climate resilience was back in focus — increasing by more than 40% to 18th place, after slipping last year.
In his forward, KPMG New Zealand global head of agribusiness Ian Proudfoot said one of his biggest surprises in last year’s report was that the need to proactively consider managed retreat and farm system transition to more climate resilient options was ranked in last place.
“To me, it personified a ‘nothing to see here’ mentality that enables leaders to deprioritise something hard when the burning platform only appears to be smouldering — even if it is widely accepted that it’s only a matter of time before the flames flare again.
“I recognise that initiating conversations that could lead to fundamental changes in people’s lives … is really hard. However, we don’t help ourselves or our communities by avoiding these conversations and tolerating continued piecemeal reaction over a planned, strategic response.”
Among the global volatility, it was critical for organisations to discern what were shocks — unexpected events that had consequences but did not ultimately change the long-term direction of travel — in comparison to deep shifts in the direction of travel for global society that would continue regardless of shocks.
He cited climate change as a good example, as nothing had happened that year or in any recent year that had fundamentally altered the inexorable increase in temperatures and resulting weather consequences.
“Factual data from credible agencies shows the trends; the deep shift is unfortunately well-established. The shock is the pushback that is occurring against organisations and individuals that seek to initiate and lead difficult conversations,” he said.
Biosecurity incursions that year — including the detection of the H7N6 strain of avian influenza in Otago and fruit flies in Auckland suburbs — eliminated any complacency that might have crept into the sector, the report said.
Progress made on eliminating tuberculosis and Mycoplasma bovis raised the question for a contributor of what could be possible if the same spirit of collaboration extended into other biosecurity risks.
People and workforce issues dominated the top 10 priorities, including immigration settings, migrant worker protections and sector career opportunities.
The report highlighted the urgent need to attract and retain talent across the value chain — from on-farm roles to high-tech innovation — with a key focus on ensuring fit-for-purpose, on-the-job training was retained.
As global markets were in flux, leaders were also prioritising the signing of high-quality trade agreements and the development of resilient, diversified supply chains.
The agenda noted growing interest in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and India.
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
