Waimea Weekly Locally Owned and Operated
Wednesday 18 January 2023
Final stop for Railway JO KENT It’s been known as ‘The Railway’ since it opened its doors as a hotel in 1883, but Richmond’s iconic bar on the corner of Lower Queen Street and SH6 has been given a total rebrand and facelift by new owners Dave and Kimberly Fuller. “We’ve called it The Big Sip and can’t wait to offer locals somewhere decent to go for a night out,” Dave says. Historically, the building was frequented by locals as well as those using the railway, who would pop in for a drink. As the post office was next door to the station, people
SEE PAGE 5
Scramble for egg supply ELOISE MARTYN and SARA HOLLYMAN Supermarket shelves are bare of eggs while others are limiting the number of cartons customers can buy during a nationwide drop in supply. Poultry farmers have had a challenging past few years, starting in 2019 when supermarkets an-
nounced that they would stop purchasing caged eggs over the next two to four years. This introduced a lot of doubt to farmers about the future of their farm and flock. Following this, Covid-19 brought huge blows to small free-range farmers who sold their eggs locally to cafes, corner dairies and farmer markets.
“Since Covid, sixteen free-range farms have gone out of business and, to date, during the whole of 2022 we did not receive even one new application to become an egg farmer,” Egg Producers Federation executive director Michael Brooks says. A ban on battery caged hens, announced back in 2012, came into effect in December and over the
past few years the deadline has caused turmoil in the industry. Michael says more than 75 per cent of chicken farmers have had to change their farming methods or their career because of the ban. He says the war in Ukraine has increased the cost of grain, which accounts for around 70 per cent of the production cost per egg. Coupled with inflation and su-
permarkets announcing they would begin to phase out colony caged eggs from their stores has led to a drop in commercial hens. “It’s led to a drop of about 600,000 or 700,000 hens in the commercial flock. That’s a lot of eggs that aren’t available.” Hen numbers had sat as high as
SEE PAGE 2
Trade-in’s welcome - Finance Available
See our large range of mobility options instore today Cnr McGlashen Ave & Croucher St, Richmond LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED
Ph: 03 544 7717
www.accessmobility.co.nz waimeaweekly.co.nz