New Zealand farmers are required by law to complete an Agricultural Production Census every year. These surveys are administered by Stats NZ and the Ministry of Primary Industries. The surveys are sent out to almost 60,000 agricultural enterprises and are compulsory for all large-scale farming, forestry and horticultural businesses. “Large-scale” is based on the requirement to be registered for GST, which is all businesses with greater than $60k turnover. They are not a random survey but rather a census. For the primary sector, the census data is vital for securing funding and targeting services.
We normally receive a large number of these surveys from Stats NZ as our address is the Registered Office for most of our clients companies. The surveys are typically forwarded on to you to complete. This year we have also had a large volume of follow up phone calls and emails regarding incomplete surveys.
Please remember that there is a risk of fines for farmers who refuse to complete the survey by the due date (end of December 2022). The fines are up to $2,000 for an individual and $12,000 for an organisation.
If you require any assistance completing the survey, please touch base with your client manager and we are more than happy to assist.