Blog

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads throughout the world, we are yet to fully understand what effect that this will have on the agriculture industry. However, one thing we do believe is that there’s no better time to start budgeting than now. 

The Covid-19 crisis has hit the UK economy in ways that a short while ago would seem far fetched. We have all seen the impacts this has had on many sectors and people. The impact for the agricultural sector in the immediate term is varied - depending on factors such as exposure to retail versus trade channels, requirement and availability of labour on farm / off farm, levels of tourism diversification and so on. Each business will have a unique set of factors to consider. 

Figured’s Scenario product lets you plan and analyse different financial outcomes within a farming operation, across multiple years. The entire farming team can view and access these scenarios, to make informed data driven decisions. 

With the COVID-19 crisis affecting closures of many non essential businesses, we chatted to Brett Bennett from FARMit last week about the impact this may have on the NZ Agriculture sector.

When we’re out and about around the country talking to accountants, farmers and others in the sector we hear a lot about the emergence of new technologies. From our perspective it’s an exciting time to be part of the emerging agri-tech revolution, and that feeling is shared by many people we talk to. However there is also a general feeling that with many new technologies being introduced, it is sometimes hard to know where to ‘place your bets’ - or how to approach choices of new technologies. 

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, we chatted to John Schol from MMCA last week about what steps their firm is taking to ensure business continuity and wellbeing amongst their teams.

New Zealand has two significant industries which support the majority of our economy - tourism and agriculture. In the space of one week one of those industries, tourism, has closed shop for the foreseeable future. The other, agriculture, will be rattled, but if our farmers run their business in a smart and considered manner, they should be able navigate the times ahead, and lead New Zealand through this unprecedented social and economic event.

At this time of unprecedented personal and professional challenge, the provision of accurate and accessible financial management for agriculture has never been more important. Accountants have a key role in providing business support to farmers, helping them understand how they are going to plan, react and prepare for the business impact of the Covid-19 virus. 

We’ve been running remote training & client sessions for a while now - Figured is a remote-first company. We also regularly travel to rural and remote areas for our clients, but we often still run other sessions when we’re out on the road! With small in-market teams such as here in the UK, being able to run these remote sessions has been crucial, and we thought there is no better time to share some of that knowledge with you!