6th August 2026 // Rural News

Chinese investor takes stake in Spring Sheep Milk Overseas investors continue to snap up NZ farmland and forests Government backs rural careers pathway for at-risk youth   WANT TO LISTEN TO THE SHOW LIVE (11am-1pm NZST) ON THE GO? Download CountryWide Connect mobile app to stream the show via Apple Car Play or Android Auto. Or try the voice command ‘Play CountryWide Connect’ on Amazon Alexa or Google Home.   Apple: https://apps.apple.com/nz/app/countrywide-connect/id6761033881 Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.countrywide&hl=en_NZ   Chinese investor takes stake in Spring Sheep Milk Hamilton-based sheep milk producer Spring Sheep is entering a new growth phase after securing a Chinese strategic investor, with ShareJoy Group taking a six-point-six percent stake in the business. The Nanjing-based family business specialises in senior nutrition and healthy ageing — a growing market as China's population aged over sixty is forecast to reach four-hundred-and-two million people by 2040. Spring Sheep launched an exclusive adult and senior nutrition product range for ShareJoy in May. Chief executive Thomas Macdonald says the first decade was about building the industry — getting sheep producing viable yields, establishing resilient supplier farms and building a processing facility. The new capital marks an inflection point toward branded consumer products and eventually more milk supply. Spring Sheep now has thirteen supplying farms and last season achieved a record average of fifty-seven kilograms of milk solids per ewe. Demand is currently outstripping milk supply — exactly where the business wants to be.     Overseas investors continue to snap up NZ farmland and forests Ikea's investment arm, a Mormon Church subsidiary and a German insurer are among the latest overseas investors to purchase New Zealand primary industry land, as details of June Overseas Investment Office approvals are released. Ikea's Ingka Investments has added a three-hundred-and-fifty hectare Southland forest to its existing forty-three-thousand hectare New Zealand portfolio, while German insurer HDI has acquired an eight-hundred-and-ninety-three hectare Taranaki forest near Stratford. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidiary Farmland Reserve has purchased a large dairy farm near Pukehina in the Bay of Plenty, which will undergo a thirty-two million dollar redevelopment managed by Craigmore Sustainables. The approvals are part of more than twenty-four billion dollars in overseas investment transactions processed by the OIO in 2025/26. Logging and forestry dominated consent numbers, with overseas investors purchasing into one-hundred-and-six-thousand hectares of New Zealand land over the year.   Government backs rural careers pathway for at-risk youth More than fifty at-risk young people will get hands-on training in farming and forestry under a new two-hundred-thousand dollar programme aimed at opening pathways into rural careers. Youth Minister James Meager announced the funding this week, with the NZ Rural Games Trust receiving one-hundred-thousand dollars from the Youth Development Partnership and Innovation Fund — matched by the trust itself. The thirteen-month Agri Futures Pathways pilot will run in the lower North Island, offering people aged twelve to twenty-four a minimum ten-week course in practical primary industry skills including sheep shearing, fencing, quad bike safety, stock handling, arboriculture, horticulture and pasture management. Meager says the programme helps young people at risk of disengaging from education connect with industry professionals and explore careers in the food and fibre sector — opening doors that would otherwise have been missed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.