The warmer spring weather is finally rewarding New Zealand with an improved supply and prices on new season asparagus, courgettes and strawberries.
This week shoppers will find asparagus in either 250 gram bunches or 500g bags at the cheapest price so far this season. The courgettes are now half the price they were last week and again either loose or in 500g bags.
Broccoli supplies have been erratic over the last few days, cauliflowers have been good buying and celery, silverbeet and spinach are all selling at normal spring time prices.
Capsicums, cucumbers, iceberg lettuce and hydroponic fancy lettuces are all good buying and hot house tomatoes are slowly improving in price. There is a good supply of loose tomatoes coming up from the Nelson area. J.S. Ewers Limited is the grower who has a large sophisticated growing operation in Richmond area of Nelson. Look out for his loose and vine bitez cherry tomatoes.
Not all the news is good however. Effects of the extremely difficult winter weather are now being seen and potato prices are climbing weekly.
Some growers are running out of stock completely with top quality agria and rua potatoes only available in limited numbers, hence the high prices. This situation will not change for at least another month at the earliest so be selective in what you buy.
Continuing with the bad news, Northland kumara and Hawke's Bay crown pumpkin supplies are in the same boat with limited volumes and high prices.
Hawke's Bay apple supplies are good with granny smith, pink lady and pacific queen varieties being the best buys either loose or in 2kg bags. Green and gold kiwifruit are selling well and enjoy the Gisborne navel oranges while they are readily available at good prices this week.
New season tangelos are selling well and there is a good supply of pears, lemons, grapefruit and the last of this year's tamarillos.
Strawberry supplies are improving daily with prices getting more acceptable and you will find both early season blueberries and raspberries to add to the treat list. Imports to look out for this week will include Australian mangos and melons, US grapes and a good supply of bananas for the school holidays.
| A FreshPlaza release || October 11, 2017 |||
ASX-listed IPH Ltd said it has acquired New Zealand intellectual property law firm AJ Park for $66 million.
IPH, which describes itself as Asia-Pacific's leading intellectual property group, expects the deal to be completed by Oct. 31. AJ Park employs 205 people with offices in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney, including 30 percent of New Zealand’s registered patent attorneys, and was established in 1891. The Kiwi law firm's client list spans a third of Fortune 500 companies and more than half of New Zealand's top 200 companies.
AJ Park will be the first New Zealand IP firm to join a publicly listed IP group, as a result of legislation which took effect from February 2017, which removed restrictions on ownership structures for patent attorney firms.
The deal comes as foreign ownership was discussed in the current negotiations between NZ First and the National and Labour parties to form the next government. NZ First has been a strong proponent in seeking to limit the level of foreign ownership in New Zealand.
The $66 million price tag, adjusted for net debt and working capital, represents 7.5 times AJ Park's normalised earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) in the 2017 financial year, IPH said. It will be settled 60 percent in cash and the remainder in new IPH shares, with those shares to be escrowed for two years and the cash to be funded by USD denominated debt.
"We are confident that significant benefits will flow from being part of the IPH Group," AJ Park managing partner Damian Broadley said. "Importantly, we will continue to operate under the same name, with the same high-quality people, but will gain access to investment, technologies and networks that will enhance the way we deliver services to our clients."PH managing director David Griffith said the deal "represents a further step in IPH's strategy to expand its presence in secondary IP markets and, most importantly, supports IPH's growth in Asia through extension of our Asian service offering to AJ Park's local and international clients."
The acquisition still hinges on completion of restructuring and contractual arrangements, consent from third parties and no material adverse changes, IPH said. Its shares last traded at A$4.96 on the ASX, and are down 3.1 percent this year.
| A Sharechat release || October 2017, 11 |||
Leading New Zealand economic research company BERL next week celebrates its 60 years in business with a special event in Wellington. BERL was founded by Bryan Philpott, then an economist with the New Zealand Meat and Wool Board’s economic service; Hew Walls, a staffer in the Reserve Bank; and Norman Macbeth, editor of the Christchurch Press; opened for business in November 1957 with the distribution of the prototype issue of Trends, later to become BERL forecasts. Current BERL chief economist Ganesh Nana says that first issue, in the shadow of the 1957 general election, predicted grim times ahead. “With the confirmation of the forecast crisis and the subsequent infamous Nordmeyer Black Budget, BERL’s reputation was immediately established,” Dr Nana says. “While the BERL founders have long since passed, their ethos of making sense of the numbers remains alive and at the core of BERL today. “We overhauled the measurement of the asset base Māori economy asset base for Te Puni Kōkiri. Newly devised methodology supported by international peer review saw the 2010 measure of $36.9billion being widely adopted as a benchmark. This measure was subsequently updated for the 2013 year to $42.6billion. “We continue to regularly provide the local government sector forecasts of costs facing the sector for use in council annual plans. We measured – for WWF New Zealand – the transition costs involved in moving to alternative dolphin-friendly fishing methods. “The Māui dolphin is one of New Zealand’s most endangered animals with an estimated 63 dolphins over one year of age and are only found on the west coast. “Work for the New Zealand Housing Foundation highlighted the potential gains to the government’s finances – in terms of reduced health care costs, welfare payments, and crime costs, and increased tax revenues – arising from the improved outcomes of those in owner-occupier housing. “We have provided regular impact assessments for the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust across the range of their events including WOMAD and the Garden Festival. “We are proud to renew our corporate patrons” sponsorship of the New Zealand Festival and are excited about the 2018 event and to providing economic research and advisory services to assist in its success. “Over the past years BERL has tackled many challenges and opportunities. We are proud to remain a fiercely independent New Zealand owned, Wellington-based research consultancy business. “There are probably not many New Zealand owned commercial small to medium enterprises that have completed 60 years in business, so we believe it is a milestone worthy of celebration. “We know BERL was first in New Zealand in the economic forecasting and research consultancy game. We have seen in office 14 prime ministers, 13 governors-general, 13 finance ministers, 11 Treasury secretaries and nine Reserve Bank governors. “While some of these office holders may or may not change in the near future, BERL fully intends to outlast many more. “BERL remains true to our vision to make a difference. Economics is not about finance, nor about dollars and cents. It is about people, their communities, and their potential. We strive to make a difference by helping people and their communities realise their potential,” Dr Nana says.
| A Make Lemonade release || October 11, 2017 |||
Air New Zealand will fly daily to Houston for most of next winter as demand for travel between New Zealand and Texas continues to soar. Air New Zealand currently operates five services per week to Houston year-round. From 25 March to 27 October 2018 it will increase to a mix of daily services and six services per week, a capacity increase of 16,000 seats on the route over this period. The airline will deploy its newly configured 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on Auckland-Houston from December 2017, the first time the Dreamliner will regularly service one of Air New Zealand’s North American routes. Air New Zealand’s Chief Revenue Officer Cam Wallace says the airline has steadily grown its Houston operations since it commenced services there in 2015 and it’s fantastic to see strong demand from both ends of the route. “A strategic gateway into America’s south, Houston is unlocking huge demand for travel to New Zealand from across the South, Mid-west and Mid-Atlantic regions, with annual visitor arrivals up 21 percent from Texas and 25 percent from New York. “As a transit hub, Houston also offers Kiwi travellers better onward connections to popular East Coast destinations like New York, Boston and Miami.” The newly configurated 787 offers more premium seating for customers, with 27 Business Premier seats – up from 18 on the existing Air New Zealand Dreamliner, and 33 Premium Economy seats, up from 21. Air New Zealand also offers its popular Economy Skycouch™ alongside the Premium Economy and Business Premier options on services to Houston. Air New Zealand recently launched its global marketing campaign A Better Way to Fly in North America, using a CGI kiwi named Pete in a bid to convince more Americans and Canadians to travel with the airline to New Zealand and Australia.
| An Air New Zealand release || October 11, 2017 |||
#2 - The notion of a world capsized by the weight of its uncontrolled population growth overlapped with the nuclear war fear. It began to dissipate during the 1960s with the advent of readily-available contraceptive science. Yet later in the last century is began to pick up renewed momentum through reports of population expansion in Africa and Asia.
The position now Recognition of this and action in Asia, most famously in China, has allayed these fears. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation report, the most recent comprehensive one on the topic indicates that world population is now stabilising. The population “bomb” syndrome is a rare panic in that it can be ascribed to a single person instead of to a collective. In New Zealand in 2013, Paul Ehrlich, his explosive deadlines still far behind him, nonetheless clung to his original postulation.
| Big Frights of Our Times MSC Newswire Series #2 || Wednesday 10 October 2017 |||
Many believe that New Zealand’s Hollywood suburb Miramar, is in fact Miramax
Beleaguered show business mogul Harvey Weinstein remains the foreigner whose influence detonated the most extraordinary and unexpected New Zealand commercial development of the last century.
The film industry
Lugubrious, ponderous, quick tempered, and impulsive, it was Mr Weinstein who backed the film that launched the third, and ultimately successful wave of New Zealand film making.
This was The Piano with its all -star global cast and subsequent global take up.
So successful was it that Mr Weinstein was to use the piano theme again, in Beautiful Girls.
Then Mr Weinstein went on back New Zealand’s Heavenly Creatures.
Then he gave the initial show of support to the most spectacular product series of New Zealand cinematography in the form of the Tolkien saga.
The one man hit-factory’s New Zealand touch was so accurate in the entertainment industry here that many believed that that the locational hub of the New Zealand industry was actually Miramax instead of being in fact Miramar.
Mr Weinstein’s (pictured) touch is often considered to be behind the comet-like careers of others with New Zealand backgrounds, notably that of Russell Crowe of Master and Commander fame.
New Zealand and Mr Weinstein were lucky enough to collide at the very height of the Miramax golden touch at the cusp of the last century and this one.
Subsequently Miramax went through a series of corporate revolving doors that began to sap the company’s blend of intuitive show-picking along with the personalised business side of the equation needed to sustain it.
Like a protagonist in one of his own films Mr Weinstein failed to foresee the imminence of his own demise.
Sycophants encouraged him in his foolish belief that he was bigger than the game.
Then he got himself on the wrong side of history.
He was oblivious for example to the screamingly obvious fact that as a highly visible, even ghoulish , personification of the big-donor Democratic- Clintonesque epoch, his once acquiescent protectors were melting away.
It was now that the East Coast media, stung by accusation after accusation to the effect that they believed that only Republicans were capable of doing bad things, sought to correct the impression that it had given.
It went looking for a counterbalancing Democratic scalp to put up on its masthead spear.
In terms of notoriety, vulgarity, and sheer name recognition there were none bigger than Harvey Weinstein’s.
| From the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. || Tuesday 10 October 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242