Our Taste Pure Nature origin brand is set to launch in California this quarter, targeting a key consumer group our research has identified who we’ve dubbed the conscious foodies.
These conscious foodies are people who care about the provenance of the food they eat. They want to know it’s been raised or grown in an environmentally sustainable and ethical way just as much as they want to know it’s a healthy choice for them.
They’re adventurous in their cooking and are willing to pay a premium for the food they eat.
However, when you ask overseas consumers about their knowledge of NZ they don’t know much about our farming systems and that means they don’t automatically associate our red meat products with the attributes they’re looking for.
Taste Pure Nature will help bridge that gap.
Developed in consultation with processors, Taste Pure Nature taps into the market of about 40 million consumers by helping leverage the natural advantage NZ has with its pasture-based, extensive farming systems.
The values of these relatively affluent consumers align perfectly with the way we farm and fit in well with wider perceptions of NZ.
The launch of Taste Pure Nature in the United States is just the start with work under way to create a broader strategy for realising the opportunities for NZ red meat in China and how Taste Pure Nature fits into that.
Alongside that work we’re also doing research in Shanghai to better understand our target market in China ahead of launching there.
Underpinning that is the NZ Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP), which will tell the conscious foodies the NZ red meat they’re enjoying has been raised in a way that is consistent with their values.
Having these robust standards means when our consumers rightfully want to look under the hood to find out more about how their food is produced we can be confident in our product.
Only NZFAP assured product will be able to use the Taste Pure Nature brand so processors will be looking for more farmers to join NZFAP as Taste Pure Nature gains traction.
We’re continuing to work on implementing our environment strategy and supporting farmers to improve their environmental performance.
Much of our focus this year will be around issues like climate change and water quality with groups like catchment communities and projects such as the One Billion Trees programme presenting useful opportunities for our sector.
The environment is also where some of the major policy decisions facing our sector will be made this year.
In the next couple of months the draft of the Zero Carbon Bill is likely to be announced and the Interim Climate Change Committee will report back to the Government, including on whether agriculture should be in the Emissions Trading Scheme and how that could happen.
New regulations around water quality will also be consulted on in the first half of the year.
We have been engaging with government and industry partners on all these issues to help shape any decisions so they create frameworks that deliver on the outcomes the Government wants while also being workable for farmers.
Now our Future Farm is up and running we will start to implement a programme of work where we can demonstrate new technologies and new techniques so farmers can see how they work in a commercial environment.
The Mycoplasma bovis response will remain an important area of focus for B+LNZ.
We will continue to support farmers affected by the response while working with the Ministry for Primary Industries and DairyNZ to improve processes and timeliness around the response.
The progress of the phased eradication indicates we are on track to eliminate the disease but there is still a significant amount of work to be done before we know that for certain.
There is also the joint B+LNZ and DairyNZ consultation on the time frames in which farmers will repay the industry’s share of the response cost. That consultation will start soon.
Looking further afield, uncertainty remains on the trade front.
At the time of writing Brexit remained up in the air and B+LNZ is working with the Meat Board, the Meat Industry Association and processing companies to ensure stability and continuity should no deal be reached.
Trade tensions between the US and China, as well as rising protectionism elsewhere are also areas we are keeping watching briefs on.
There is good news though.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership entered into force on December 30 with significant tariff reductions and opportunities in important markets like Japan.
There are also the European Union-NZ free-trade agreement negotiations with the EU being a significant market worth more than $2 billion for our sector.
This year we’ll also be advancing our work on building the capability of the sheep and beef sector’s people.
We’ll work closely with the Government to work out a sustainably funded training regime that is outcomes-based and focused on delivering on-farm results.
Alongside all this B+LNZ will continue to deliver on all the things you expect of us such as our extension activity, developing resources and advice on best practice farming techniques, delivering insights about the sector to help inform both your on-farm decisions and local and central government policy and helping you tell your story as farmers better to the NZ public.
As you can see, it’s going to be a busy year with a lot of important issues and work to get done and I look forward to speaking to many of you over the coming months.
