Eligibility for the NIWE Primary Producer Finance Scheme

Find out if your business is likely to be eligible for funding from the Scheme.

This funding is available for businesses severely impacted by the North Island Weather Events in early 2023, including the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, located partially or wholly in the following regions:

  • Northland
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
  • Bay of Plenty
  • Tairāwhiti
  • Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua
  • Wairarapa.

The Scheme is only available to severely impacted land-based primary producers unable to secure further lending from their bank or other usual lender without government support. 

To be eligible for finance under the Scheme, you must provide evidence:

  • your business has incurred losses of 30% or more of your uninsurable productive capacity because of the North Island weather events
  • your business is a producing land-based primary sector entity, located partially or wholly in at least one the following regions: Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Tairāwhiti, Hawke's Bay, Tararua, Wairarapa
  • your business’s loss of viability was a result of the weather events, and not a pre-existing issue
  • your business has a prospect of returning to viability within the term of the loan (for example, restored positive cash flow)
  • your business has sought and will not receive lending from commercial lender(s), or source of capital of choice, or your business does not have access to sufficient capital through other means (for example, through the business balance sheet capacity) without government support
  • your business took steps ahead of the event to mitigate or avoid losses, such as insuring assets where there are readily available insurance products
  • of a business commitment to improve resilience to similar risks in the future, such as flood risks.

Complex cases and/or regionally significant firms

All applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The Scheme provides for flexibility on eligibility in limited circumstances. These circumstances include but not limited to the number of staff employed, annual turnover, and upstream and downstream dependencies or any broad-based negative effect of not supporting your business.