Farmer confidence in general economic conditions has hit a record low, according to a Federated Farmers January survey.
The survey received just over 1100 responses from farm businesses around the country, with a net 65.2 per cent considering current economic conditions to be bad.
That's 17.4 points worse than last July's survey and the lowest level of confidence expressed in the 27 biannual Farm Confidence surveys Feds has conducted since 2009.
A net 81.8 per cent of farmer respondents expected economic conditions to deteriorate over the next 12 months, 0.9 points down from the survey six months ago.
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"It's not just inflation and rising farm input costs," Federated Farmers president, and economic spokesman, Andrew Hoggard said.
When asked to list their top three concerns, those who took part in the survey put climate change policy and the Emissions Trade Scheme at number one.
Debt, interest costs and bank pressure leapt to second place and third was regulation and compliance costs - "a catch-all for the wave of reform, regulation, red tape and costs swamping the sector", Hoggard said.
He highlighted proposed replacement resource management legislation as one example.
"It took 30 years for the existing RMA and amendments to swell to a bloated and tortuous 800-plus pages.
"The call was for something simpler, less cumbersome and costly but the proposed new legislation is just as lengthy."
Hoggard said the National and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Bills undermined local democracy and failed to reduce compliance complexity.
"[The bills] will be a feast for lawyers for years ahead, with farmers, businesses and ratepayers shouldering delays and cost."
The Feds survey found the four highest priorities farmers wanted the Government to address were:
- Fiscal policy
- Economy and business environment
- Regulation and compliance costs
- Supporting agriculture and exporters
Federated Farmers said faltering confidence meant less investment in farm improvements and production and lower spending in the provinces.
The January survey registered a steep decline in profitability, with a net 28.4 per cent of respondents reporting making a profit. This was down 26.7 points on July 2022.
Looking ahead, 5.4 per cent of respondents expect their production to decline over the year (4.9 per cent down on six months ago) and a net 24.1 per cent thought their spending would increase over the next 12 months, down 30.5 points on the July finding.
