“It’s not an opportunity but a responsibility of ours.
“Food security is a real issue. We have an abundance of food in NZ and we don’t actually take it seriously,” he said.
Addressing the deer industry conference Petersen said NZ has a huge opportunity to capitalise on that.
“It’s about exporting our products but also about exporting our farming systems to help them.
“It’s our comparative advantage and something we can really share and use offshore to advance NZ’s interests.”
Petersen, a former Beef + Lamb NZ chairman and the Government’s special agricultural trade envoy, said there’s momentum for a whole lot of changes not just in the deer industry but the whole farming sector.
That’s why NZ needs a new story.
“My call for a new story is because there is not a story that relates to NZ.
“People like us – we are more humble with more trust but it’s about the integrity of our products and of our systems.
“The NZ story as it is known has three themes – open hearts, open spaces, open minds.
“That does not link with the products we take from NZ.”
NZ needs to promote the big alternative, talk about the agri-food sector, not the primary sector.
“A story talking about working up front, working with nature and all our national credentials and attributes to create a value food from the most beautiful and trusted place in the world.
“NZ needs access to the most affluent markets in the world if we are going to get true value from our top end products.
“There are opportunities in that for the deer industry,” Petersen said.
They would come post-Brexit from the United Kingdom and Europe and through the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The CPTPP is a new free-trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, NZ, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Once the CPTPP comes into force it will be one of the largest free-trade agreements in the world and will provide enhanced market access to key Asian markets.
As soon as new trade opportunities with the UK and Europe and through the CPTPP are sorted work can begin to form new agreements.
“We want that to happen quite quickly.
“We are hopeful by the end of the year the first six countries will be in and NZ needs to be in that first six,” Petersen said.
“When you go to countries overseas there is real concern about where the food will come from to feed their people.
“When we talk about food security it is really about water and having enough to produce food.
“We have opportunity and we can help feed their people. We need to be there to take that opportunity.”
