Ashburton District is in the enviable position of having a "dual" economy ....

Without doubt, the business, which the Ashburton District does best, is growing.

In fact at least 92% of the total effective agricultural land area of the District is devoted to grazing and growing!  While the underlying economy is agriculturally based, the depth of local industry is wide ranging.

Ashburton District has generally reliable summer conditions, free-draining soils, irrigation availability and is favourably located.  These features, together with the skills of the local people in growing, processing, marketing and the farm servicing community’s contribution, makes Ashburton District one of New Zealand’s favoured production districts.

Ashburton District is the seed capital of the South Pacific and this will be further advanced when a proposed new irrigation scheme is completed which will cover an additional 40,000 hectares of land that includes some of the best soils in the District.

The innovative nature of the people is portrayed in the diversity of production in the Ashburton District, which includes engineering, handicrafts, apparel manufacture, viticulture, print manufacturing and meat exporting. Read more about Ashburton Industry >>

Live and Work in Ashburton!