BNZ drought assistance to Northland farmers underway

Following the Government declaring a drought in Northland and parts of Auckland, BNZ has officially announced its drought assistance package for farmers affected by the driest start to the year on record in Northland and parts of Auckland.

Dave Handley, BNZ GM Agribusiness, says, “These are challenging conditions for our Northland farmers. We want to support them and alleviate some of the pressure brought on by the lack of rain.”

BNZ enacted its own Drought provisions on January 23, 2020 which include:

• Additional Temporary Overdraft approvals of up to $100,000
• Ability to defer Scheduled Principal Repayments

Handley says, “We’ve been working alongside our agri-customers in the region for some time to understand what we can do to help them as conditions became more challenging.

“Temporary overdraft facilities and the ability to defer scheduled principle repayments should take some of the pressure off farmers so they can concentrate on running their business and looking after their stock through this period of dry weather.

“We welcome the government’s official declaration of a drought to unlock further support and we’ll continue to work with our customers alongside these new provisions,” he says.

Handley says BNZ is proactively contacting its farmer customers to discuss support options and is encouraging all its farmer customers to contact the bank if they have not heard from their BNZ partner yet.