It would also involve a cultural change away from low-cost production thinking, she told the Marketing to the Rural Sector conference in Auckland on Wednesday.
The unit’s five-year programme, Unleashing Export Prosperity, costing $4 million funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment began last year.
It involves three components – physical attributes of products, such as flavour and appearance, credence attributes such as food safety claims and cultural attributes such as indigenous authenticity or a passionate family-run business.
An associated leadership module is seen as an important element in creating products combining all three components. It’s the first programme anywhere to combine the three attributes with research being done in eight countries.
“The aim is to hopefully make everyone rich,” she said.
Some future trends that, as well as having an impact on the sector, could present big opportunities for New Zealand are naturalness of food production, pasture-based systems, environmental factors and nutritional food.
Europeans see air and water quality as food quality and NZ has a big advantage in not having the heavy metals in soils, as some European countries do.
“A lot of countries are cleaner and greener than us,” Saunders said.
“When I came here from Newcastle 20 years ago I was shocked at the state of the rivers. And they’ve got worse.
“But our air quality is great and we have lots of amazing clean, green attributes.”
Another of the unit’s research programmes is looking into maximising export returns. The aim is to find out what different markets want and the premiums they will pay, by use of interactive dashboard reporting. Also included is research into how to return the premiums to producers which NZ isn’t good at.
Overseas consumers’ ranking of NZ products such as yoghurt and beef in this study show NZ is right up there when it comes to environmental perceptions.
“But it doesn’t always get premiums.”
Asked about genetic modification she challenged the audience to show her one GM product that would benefit NZ and consumers.
“There isn’t one, so why risk our GM-free status,” she said.
The big debate is where to hold field trials.
She is sceptical about synthetic meat, describing it as a great Silicon Valley thing. But the plant-based Impossible burger is likely to gain more acceptance.
“It has kicked the beef and lamb community up the proverbial.”
She hopes that will change the culture with a move away from a take-the-orders attitude to greater innovation in line with consumers’ requirements.
It is an opportunity to promote this country’s grass-fed beef while hopefully grain-fed beef from stock raised on feedlots will become less accessible.
Asked whether NZ farmers are sophisticated enough to meet future market requirements she drew a distinction between the kiwifruit and dairy industries.
“Zespri is an exemplar with market signals right down to the production level,” she said.
“But the dairy sector – are they thinking about the practices which won’t be so acceptable in the future?”
NZ needs to be looking to changes that could give it a first-mover advantage such as being the only country with agriculture included in its Emissions Trading Scheme.
“If we do it, let’s go out with a bang,” she said.
“Be sophisticated and look at what different market segments want.”
In Korea machines on railway platforms allow evening commuters to select, order and pay for food to be delivered to their house by the time they get home.
Seeing those in every Asian city selling NZ primary products is a different vision previous ways of getting into the market.
