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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon met with a variety of Mid Canterbury farmers and agricultural support businesses at Ruralco’s Instore Days on Friday 5 July, describing the event as a wonderful opportunity to connect with the primary sector.

With over two thousand people attending the two-day mini field-days event, there were plenty of opportunities for Mr Luxon and local Rangitata MP, James Meager, to hear first-hand from a wide variety of farmers, and from the businesses which support them.

Ruralco CEO, Tony Aitken, says this year’s 30th anniversary Instore Days provided the perfect platform. “Ruralco is here for the local community. Our focus is to make farming easier, and we are proud to be a conduit to facilitate opportunities such as the Prime Minister’s visit where our farmers, merchants and local businesses have the chance to speak directly to their Prime Minister.”

“We work hard to create touchpoints with our farmers, and our Instore Days is a particularly important part of that process. To have the Prime Minister in attendance has been a wonderful addition to what was already a significant milestone for our Mid Canterbury based co-operative as we celebrate our 30th Instore Days anniversary.”

Local farmers and businesses who spoke with the Prime Minister were impressed with his genuine interest and understanding of the issues facing the primary sector, his knowledge of the region and his personal connections to the area – one of his grandfathers worked at Coldstream Estate, while the other was the principal of Willowby School; his father attended Lowcliffe Primary School; and his wife’s first teaching position was at Tinwald Primary School.

Tony says the visit was a wonderful opportunity to highlight how significant Ruralco is to the Mid Canterbury region, and this was evident by the number of people who turned out to connect with the Prime Minister. “Lunchtime is always a busy time at Instore Days, but today it was particularly noticeable that people were here to also connect with the Prime Minister.”

Instore Days is always a popular event for local farmers to come to town and to meet and mingle with each other, local businesses, and Ruralco staff to hear first-hand about new technologies, innovations and to access some great deals. “Ruralco and its local farming community has achieved a lot together over the last 60 years. Today’s visit has definitely been a highlight. We were established in Mid Canterbury in 1963 to support local farmers and that remains our focus as we look to the future,” says Tony.