A group of New Zealand agricultural companies will be out in force at the National Ploughing Championships in an attempt to woo Irish farmers. Funded by the equivalent of Enterprise Ireland, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), five agri companies will be showcasing at the Ploughing.

In fact, the Kiwis have their own New Zealand pavilion at the Ploughing, which takes place from 20 to 22 September at Screggan near Tullamore.

Seed drill companies Aitchison and Duncan Ag, as well as New Zealand Pump, LIC Automation and the New Zealand equivalent of the Ploughing, Fieldays, will set up camp for the three days. LIC Automation is the sister company of genetics company LIC and specialises in milking machine technologies.

Waikato Milking Systems will also be showcasing its Centrus rotary parlour which is made with a composite floor, is bulletproof and is 80% lighter than traditional rotaries. Other New Zealand ag business companies at the Ploughing include electric fence experts Gallagher as well Shoof and Metalform.

Why Ireland?

New Zealand has a plan to grow exports. It is on a charm and export offensive to grow primary production exports to $64bn (€40.1bn) by 2025.

This is its ambitious Business Growth Agenda strategy, and central to the plan is exporting agriculture technology to Ireland and Europe.

The plan, which was launched in 2015, is an attempt to move the New Zealand economy away from the reliance on primary production to technologies. So far, it has been working.

The dairy downturn of 2015 into 2016, was the first time that the overall New Zealand economy did not go into recession when its dairy industry suffered.