Fieldays 2017 breaks records
Fieldays broke the halfa-billion-dollar mark in revenue for the first time in the Mystery Creek event’s 49-year history.
The four-day event in June generated $538 million in sales from New Zealand firms, including $191m in revenue from Waikato.
Out of those total sales, $450m came from sales in farm equipment which included $113m from Waikato-based firms and $336m from the rest of New Zealand. The event also contributed $238m to the country’s gross domestic product, including $79m for Waikato.
Fieldays is an event of national significance, according to a report by Dr Warren Hughes and Professor Frank Scrimgeour from Waikato University’s Management School’s Institute of Business Research.
Scrimgeour said the Fieldays 2017 Economic Impact Report gave a conservative estimate of the event‘s economic impact.
Attendance numbers had steadily lifted since the Global Financial Crisis to reach a record this year, he said.
‘‘It’s not surprising with the upward growth that the economic impact is past the half a billion dollar figure for the first time.’’The 1049 exhibitors from outside the region compared with 389 that were Waikato-based showed the event had a national impact, he said. Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation said this year’s event was one of the best in its 49 years because of the record gate numbers and successful sales.’’It does not matter which way you look at these results, they are impressive and unequalled.’’
International visitors from 40 countries attended with representatives from nine of the countries exhibiting. This firmly placed the event on the world stage and it benefited from a strongly performing primary sector, which did not happen that often, he said.
The site at Mystery Creek sat within a 250 kilometre radius of nearly half of New Zealand’s population and this was credited for more urban dwellers making their way to the event. About 10 per cent of total visitors had come from Auckland, 48 per cent from Waikato, 15 per cent from Bay of Plenty and 16 per cent from the lower North Island.
Visitors from urban centres resulted in a greater understanding to the contribution the primary sector made, Nation said. ‘‘They learn about some of the challenges and some of the opportunities and future thinking in the industry.’’
He announced ‘The future of farming’ as the theme for next year’s Fieldays, celebrating its 50th year. The event had set the pace in terms of technology and innovation and had become the lead lag indicator for economic prosperity in the primary sector, he said.
Scrimgeour said that while people should be delighted about the Fieldays achievements, the same level of growth could not be expected every year.
‘‘But we should expect ongoing growth in this good news story.’’
This year’s Fieldays broke all previous records for attendance with 133,588 people through the gate, 1.5 per cent more than the previous record of 131,629 set in 2008.
The event created 2300 full time equivalent jobs, up from 2021 last year. Of those, 900 were in Waikato, a 27 per cent increase on the previous year.
Work was sustained either side of the four day event, including site preparations, freight and hospitality. The report showed that for every dollar spent during the event another $1.37 of sales revenue is generated somewhere else in the national economy.
Fieldays’ brand value also increased from $380m to $465m, signalling the event was increasing in value for manufacturers selling to primary producers.