Findex Waikato Managing Partner Hayden Dillon caught up with REX host Dominic George live at Fieldays on Thursday.
With the national election just a number of months away, Dillon told George he believes there should be fewer government-enforced regulations placed on farmers and those working in the rural sector than there currently are.
"Thousands of individual consumers making thousands of decisions every day is going to give you a much better outcome than a person in Wellington making the decision for everyone," he said.
"When there are health and safety issues and those sorts of things that's a different story…there's regulation in a positive way."
Dillon explained that the agriculture sector itself is traditionally quite reliable when it comes to regulating itself based on consumer demand and that added government regulations just hinder farmers and rural workers.
Using the dairy industry as an example, he referenced some of the biggest food companies in the world such as Mars, Nestle and Unilever who all have different environmental demands based on consumer demands that New Zealand companies like Fonterra or OCD have to meet in order to sell to their markets.
"That's the way it should work. When someone from Wellington comes in and goes, 'That's what I've decided you guys need to do' that will not work and it doesn't work.
"It implies that we sell one product to one customer and they all have the same wants and needs."
"It's not sophisticated enough."
Dillon and George talked more about the trade relationship between Aotearoa & China, the current education system and more.
