Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie said the project will establish what is distinctive about the composition of NZ grass-fed beef and the benefits to consumers, here and abroad.
“We have asked a group of medical researchers and science providers to put their heads together and come back with a proposal.
“Then meat companies would fund the research work to provide evidence when we market our beef in competition with grain-fed or the alternative proteins.”
Answers to anti-meat campaigners would also be useful, Ritchie said.
“We want to go deeper than we ever have and see what is there to help position ourselves.”
NZ meat has to go beyond the clean-and-green claims now so widespread around the world.
The industry is in a new era of collaboration with the Taste Pure Nature campaign and it will continue to do so with further research and validation of attributes, Ritchie said.
Lamb attributes will not be part of the first project because the differentiation between grain and grain-fed beef is more pronounced and potentially offers better prospects.
But logic suggests further lamb research will follow, he said.
The association’s annual Red Meat Sector Conference will be held in Napier on July 29 and 30.
Ritchie said the meat industry is in good heart with very firm sheep meat prices and good beef and co-product prices.
However, the world is full of potentially disruptive issues, including trade wars and treaty negotiations.
At home the main issues for meat companies are an estimated 10% shortage of skilled staff members and the Mycoplasma bovis threat over calf-rearing for the beef herd.
