Clutha district rises to the challenge

Clutha Development Trust members (from left) executive officer Linda Moore, chairman Rob Hewett...
Clutha Development Trust members (from left) executive officer Linda Moore, chairman Rob Hewett and board member and Clutha district deputy mayor Hamish Anderson stand by the Clutha Gold Trail at Lawrence, one of central government's significant investments in the region. Photo by Linda Robertson.
The Clutha Development Trust is encouraging and supporting job generation, wealth creation and economic success - across all levels of society and at all skill levels - in our part of New Zealand, writes Rob Hewett.

The Clutha district is home to 7% of New Zealand's sheep flock, 3.3% of New Zealand's forestry and 2.2% of New Zealand's dairy herd - in an area equivalent to 2.4% of New Zealand's land mass with 0.38% of New Zealand's population.

Our per capita GDP grew at 8.9% in 2012, compared with Otago's 2.2% and New Zealand's 1.3%. We have export-scale milk and red meat food processing facilities, an international quality agribusiness educational institution, engineering and manufacturing businesses of national quality - all located in a sustainably managed environment with barely tapped tourism opportunities that are making the world sit up and take notice.

We have a generally fine climate and water supply. Our cost of living and unemployment rates are to be envied by the rest of the country, and the rest of the world. Much of the production that starts in the Clutha district adds value to other businesses outside it.

We are a productive economy making globally demanded goods and services sustainably - for the benefit of NZ Inc. A land of milk and honey? Sometimes.

Over recent years, central government, has invested significantly in the Primary Growth Partnerships programme - a consumer-driven, industry aligned programme aiming to double agricultural exports by 2025.

Clutha Development Trust sees PGPs as integral to driving sustainable benefit into our economy, utilising a knowledge transfer ''weightless economy'' methodology.

One of the red meat sector PGP programmes - Farm IQ - has partnered with Telford, appointing it one of 12 ''IQ Farms'', a local centre of excellence where relevant on-farm best practice can be disseminated to all farmers, including farmers of the next generation.

This best practice has its genesis in measuring and linking what consumers in various international markets value highly - and are prepared to pay more for - back to what we do on the farm.

''We want all Clutha red meat farmers to have the opportunity of seeing how meeting consumer requirements can deliver more economic benefit to them,'' says the chief executive of the Clutha Development Trust, Linda Moore.

''Farm IQ is a great partnership between ourselves as a local economic catalyst, Farm IQ as a consumer-driven best practice systems provider, and Telford as a local educational institution.''

Another example of significant central government investment is the Lawrence to Alexandra cycle trails. The Clutha Gold (71km) and Roxburgh Gorge (34km) trails will open late this year. Cycle tourism is rapidly growing, attracting high net worth tourists. The Clutha Development Trust has developed a visitor strategy incorporating cycle trails and other tourism opportunities into the district. Ultimately, trail extensions from Lawrence to Milton, Dunedin and the Catlins are envisioned.

Without central government investment, these opportunities would have been unavailable. The Clutha Development Trust is taking advantage of this investment and working with the relevant parties to drive sustainable economic benefit into our community.

However, now the brickbats.

All of New Zealand is taxed for Auckland roading infrastructure initiatives to relieve congestion. We understand the need for it, we just don't appreciate paying for it on an equal footing with those directly benefiting.

Our rural economy struggles with increasingly inadequate broadband services. You can't compete in a ''weightless economy'' if you can't participate.

Our roading infrastructure makes do with less funding each year and it shows - the Beaumont bridge affects all of the lower South Island, not just Clutha.

Rural electricity networks will be a future conflict area - balancing the economic and social costs of reinvesting in a lowly populated but a very sustainably productive economy will be of vital future importance to many rural communities throughout New Zealand.

The ongoing economic and social impact of rationalisation, globalisation and free market solutions has affected our communities, often negatively.

Dunedin's experience with AgResearch, Fisher and Paykel and Hillside Engineering, Clinton, Tapanui and Lawrence have endured repeatedly with banks, garages, post offices, sawmills exiting the towns.

Change is inevitable and the pace is escalating. It is easy to shake your fist and ask, ''Why me?'' Not quite as easy to look for alternative business models and adapt.

But look we must. Having the opportunity to compete, with central government giving the opportunity to do so, would help.

Increasingly, the world realises that a rapidly growing global population puts unsustainable pressure on the balance between the need for food, clean water and energy.

We in the South are well placed to deliver sustainably these needs and New Zealand will benefit economically and socially from it. Recognising opportunities in this future economic landscape is becoming better understood at a local level.

As a series of communities, we need to seize these opportunities and take advantage of them through the likes of the Clutha Development Trust initiatives - after all, we are responsible for our own actions.

But some central government responsibility would be useful in helping these actions become reality - for the benefit of New Zealand now, and into the future.

Rob Hewett, a sheep and beef farmer in the Manuka Gorge, South Otago, is chairman of the Clutha Development Trust. He is also a board member of Silver Fern Farms and Farm IQ and a trustee of the Clutha Gold Cycle Trail Trust.


The trust

The Clutha Development Trust was formed in November 2012 in response to district demands that a local entity delivers on helping its community generate jobs, create sustainable wealth and help make the Clutha district a place where people want to live, work and play.

The Clutha Development Trust brought together three entities that had focused on different aspects of this - the Enterprise Clutha Trust (focusing on non-agri SME activity and labour market), the Clutha Ag Development Board (agriculture) and the Clutha District Development Board (overseeing community and economic development in the district).

One cross-channel, district-wide entity has given the impetus and scale to utilise Clutha district human capital better and focus with competency on the activities that matter to the district.

The Clutha Development Trust has four key objectives that deliver on exploiting the strengths of the Clutha district:

• Primary production support and development
• SME support and development
• Workforce development
• Destination marketing and tourism


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