Smith, co-founder of Craggy Range Vineyards and an advisory board member of the government-funded NZ Story Group, suggested the red meat industry needed a NZ grass-fed appellation with excellent visual, oral and written stories.
He told the Red Meat Sector conference Craggy Range had been successful by storytelling about people and place – using the French concept of terroir and the Maori equivalent, kaitiaki.
The meat industry would need to tell its own story of open spaces, open hearts and open minds.
“You will also need soft stories of people, place, crazy sheep dogs and the heritage of the industry and the products,” he said.
The NZ grass-fed appellation would need credentials and carry a meaning that was over and above business as usual and what competitors did.
It must have an absolute commitment to quality, start small and seasonal, and perhaps run out of supplies each year.
The grass-fed appellation had to sit right at the top of the market and its meat company owners had to be engaged, patient and tenacious, Smith said.
They must target only affluent consumers and ensure production systems and values aligned with the values of those consumers.
Companies needed to have secure supply contracts and show collaborative leadership.
“If you do this well it will last forever and you will sell more product for more money, forever.”
Earlier, he said NZ Winegrowers and the Family of 12 NZ-owned wineries had introduced and flourished with collaboration.
Craggy Range was well on its way to being one of the great wine estates of the world, an ambition of the other co-founder, Terry Peabody.
Planted in 1999, it had a $120 million investment in Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa and aimed to be NZ’s specialist producer of single-vineyard wines.
In 2014 it was voted New World Winery of the Year by the world’s most-read wine magazine.
Smith said his use of Maori in all of Craggy Range communications was deliberate because it was unique to NZ and considerably enhanced the people and place stories.
Meat industry leaders said afterwards that grass-fed already featured on all websites and promotional material and that Silver Fern Farms, for example, told Barry Crump-like stories in its television advertising.
