Friday, March 29, 2024

Global food value chain becomes a class act

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Collaboration between Wanganui Collegiate School, Massey University and Food Hub will expose Wanganui students to the inner workings of companies operating global food value chains. A programme was launched last week at the school by Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy who said it was an important part of building capability within the food and primary industries and an exciting development under the regional growth strategy.
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“It’s a very exciting initiative.

“It’s not an investment in bricks and mortar but about getting you as students thinking about the value-add chain.

“Think about a beef or sheep carcase – a sheep carcase, for instance, can be broken down into 300 product types and sold into 130 different countries.

“As a country we feed 40 million people, that’s why we are exporters and we have huge opportunities to market our products to the region’s wealthiest consumers.”

“We’ve got three billion consumers a long-haul flight away from us.”

Guy encouraged students to do as much as they could to understand what consumers were demanding and suggested the best way to learn was by sitting down with businesses involved in the value chain.

Food HQ director Mark Ward said the potential existed for New Zealand to climb back up the world rankings in terms of wealth per capita on the back of innovation that could drive all of the country’s food businesses up the value chain.

Guy told students the global food value chains programme would fill them with “passion and understanding and connections and stories you can feed off to move to the next level”.

The programme would be spread across the curriculum Wanganui Collegiate rector Chris Moller said.

The whole school would be doing an inquiry into the concept of global food value chains.

“Junior students will be developing a drink product and the seniors will have food value chain inquiry adapted into existing curriculum strands and have guest speakers from local food companies and Food HQ partners.”

ANZ central region commercial banking manager John Bennett announced a scholarship for a Wanganui Collegiate student to study at Massey University getting $10,000 a year for three years of a degree with possible support from the bank for holiday projects and work.

The ANZ had a huge involvement with companies creating value through the food chain and was keen to share knowledge with students so more young people wanted to be involved in the sector, he said.

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