EIT agribusiness tutor Carlos Mancer and student Karen McLanachan analysing a property assessment that forms part of the diploma programme.

The days of simply stepping into a relative’s shoes to take over the family farm or orchard are probably gone in an age when agribusinesses compete in a global market with complex value  chains.

Local farmer Karen McLanachan is one of about 15 people who have signed up for EIT’s Level 5 Agribusiness Diploma programme and she is loving the knowledge she is acquiring from it.

Her study mates are from across the primary sector board –owners, managers, leasees, farm advisors and other people from a wide range of backgrounds, including horticulture, forestry, Māori land incorporations and export agencies.

Karen has been farming as long as she can remember but like many people in the primary sector, she was finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with the plethora of new regulatory and compliance requirements.

Rules for health and safety and human resource management are becoming increasingly complex.

Throw in free trade agreements, international market trends and technological advances, and the need to be able to understand financial reports becomes ever more vital.
Karen says she has also benefitted from getting a better understanding of resource management and discovering that sustainable farming practices can actually save costs and gain competitive advantages.
But the biggest advantage has been learning to really understand and analyse the accounts from the accountant and understand the terminology they use to extract important information.
“We have also covered things such as succession planning, and the structures under which we operate, and touched on things like tax mitigation.”

Tutor Carlos Mancer is the ideal person to teach students  from such a broad range of backgrounds, having experience in both farm management and horticulture.
He had 30 years in farming, the last 11 of them managing the 4900 hectare Huiarua Station and now operates an orchard growing mandarins.

After completing a similar diploma at Open Polytech, and writing agribusiness for Telford, he feels he has done it all himself, which helps him to relate the programme material to everyone taking part in the programme.

The programme is part time, with students coming in one day a week during hours that suit their business schedule.
Each person has a different field of interest, says Carlos.

“I like the nuts and bolts of management – one student loves the ratio analysis.”
The challenge for Carlos is holding everybody’s interest and he achieves this by relating it back to their own businesses.

Karen McLanachan is currently working on a complex property report, which is the final assignment for her diploma. Karen
hopes to complete her diploma this July.