Jacinda Ardern says that environmental concerns from international buyers are affecting how the country does business.

The Prime Minister was challenged by The Country host Jamie Mackay, who praised the Government for pledging another $19.5 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to Invercargill, but says that policies around fisheries are putting pressure on the industry. 

The government's proposing to close large areas of the coast to certain fishing methods as part of its Threat Management Plan.

That's raised concerns it could put hundreds of fishers out of business.

Ardern denied that the Government is shutting down fishing grounds, but is acting to ensure that the last of Maui and Hector's dolphins are protected.

"That does has an impact on different types, or the way that we fish in particular areas. We are consulting on it, so we're asking for feedback in those areas."

She says that the government is getting a lot of pressure from those who import fish from New Zealand to act on this matter.

"There is an economic consequence as well if we don't preserve and support ways to try and stop any further loss of Maui and Hector."

Ardern denies that they are making it tough to do business in this country, as our fisheries run the risk of losing their export markets. 

Challenged if the same applies to farming and oil and gas exploration, the Prime Minister says that environmental concerns apply there. 

"Just last week I was talking to someone who's in sheep and said they'd just been talking to a wool buyer who had asked them - an international wool buyer - their first questions were to them were "what are you doing on your environmental practice? What do you do around your waterways? What are you doing around biodiversity?" And they were willing to pay a higher price if they got the right answer."

Ardern says that if New Zealand wants to make sure we move from volume to value, we need to get ahead of the game on "some of these really challenging issues".