Tag Archives: New Zealand

Iron Maidens + Sophie

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London Paralympic Games champion swimmer Sophie Pascoe is the newest Beef+Lamb NZ Inc Iron Maiden, becoming the + between Sarah Walker’s ‘Beef’ and Lisa Carrington’s ‘Lamb’.

Announced first on the domestic promotion agency’s Facebook page this morning, the well anticipated news has since been covered at the NZ Herald, which says ‘It all adds up now Sophie has joined in‘.

The 19 year old swimmer from Christchurch, who lost the lower half of her left leg aged two following a lawnmower accident, scored three gold and three silver medals at the recent games in London – breaking two world records and setting a new Paralympic record in the process. She added those to her earlier hauls of ten medals at the Summer Paralympics and four medals at the 2008 Paralympics.

Sophie, who  was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit earlier this year for her services to swimming, will appear alongside the other two B+LNZ ambassadors in a marketing campaign promoting the importance of a healthy diet, including red meat. Kiwis can expect to see Pascoe, Walker and Carrington on their television screens from November.

B+LNZ Inc chief executive, Rod Slater, says Pascoe completes the team.

“She has it all; the New Zealand public love her. Sophie fits seamlessly into the Beef + Lamb brand. We really are seeing the second generation of superstars following on from the original Iron Maidens” says Slater.

Pascoe says she’s really excited to be part of the team.

“I’m thrilled, especially to be working with two other amazing athletes. We all get on so well, it’s going to be great,” says Pascoe.

Congratulations Sophie and B+LNZ!

Channelling innovation

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The Government released the second of its six progress reports –  Building Innovation – under its Business Growth Agenda this week. The move has been welcomed by the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

Building innovation is central to building a more competitive and productive economy, said Prime Minister John Key at a business breakfast launch for the report earlier this week, adding that it gives a clear picture of the more than 50 policy initiatives the Government has underway to improve innovation, competition and the commercialisation of smart ideas and research into new products.

It calls for a doubling of the amount businesses spend on research and development, from 0.54 percent of GDP to more than one percent of GDP.

MIA chief executive Tim Ritchie has welcomed the report, saying that the meat industry is “all for anything that helps in that area.” Industry is very interested in innovation and already has a number of initiatives in place, he says.

“Individual members are involved with a number of Primary Growth Partnership projects, while the industry has also invested in Ovine Automation Ltd, a consortium of nine MIA member companies and the government that is looking at bringing a step change in sheep processing through the use of automation.”

This all adds to innovations individual meat companies are working on in their own workplaces, like Silver Fern Farms’ robotics projects, Ritchie explains.

New Advanced Technology Institute

Meat exporters will also benefit in the future from the new Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) that was announced this week will be named after the late Sir Paul Callaghan. It is to receive $166 million over the next four years and is one of the initiatives to grow business research and development further.

The Institute will be a one-stop shop that will help high-tech firms become more competitive by better connecting them with innovation and business development expertise within the institute, around the country and internationally, Steven Joyce, science and innovation minister says.

‘It will focus on industries with significant growth potential such as food and beverage manufacturing, agri-technologies, digital technologies, health technologies and therapeutics manufacturing and high-value wood products.

“The ATI will take over some business development functions that are currently within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. This will include the administration of some business research and development grants,” Joyce says.

A seven member establishment board has been tasked with having the ATI up and running by the end of the year. Chaired by Sue Suckling, who led the set up of AsureQuality NZ and NZQA, other board members include Industrial Research Ltd (IRL) director and former New Zealand Game Industry Board and Cervena Ltd chairman Richard Janes and Dr Michele Allan, who has leadership experience across many facets of the Australian food industry. They join IRL chair Michael Ludbrook, entrepreneur Neville Jordan, Auckland Transport director Paul Lockey and Plant and Food Research chair Michael Ahie.

Strong support in business community

Business NZ says that there is strong support in the business community for the Government’s systematic approach to building innovation. The ATI is a centrepiece of the innovation policy, says BNZ chief executive Phil O’Reilly.

“But there are many other initiatives including expanded TechNZ funding, better, government procurement policies, National Science challenges, more funding for the Performance-Based Research Fund, refinement of trademark and patents law, more investment in engineering at tertiary institutes, encouragement for multi-nationals to conduct research in NZ and others.

“It is up to business to innovate and grow and take up the Government’s invitation to keep the lines of communication open and provide feedback on how we are travelling towards a high-tech future.”

I’ll just print me a steak …

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Traditional meat exporters will need to consider future protein competition coming from outside the box in the future, as new technology is attracting innovation funding around the world.

One such piece of research, by a US company called Modern Meadow, has this week gained between US$250,000-300,000 for a tissue engineering project. Modern Meadow is said to be developing a fundamentally new approach to meat and leather production, “which is based on the latest advances in tissue engineering and causes no harm to animals.”

The news was announced by the US-based Thiel Foundation, set up by one of the founders of PayPal Peter Thiel. It was one of three new grants, awarded through its Breakout Labs programme. This is a revolutionary revolving fund to promote innovation in science and technology. The two other grants went to medical and therapeutic innovations.

According to Breakout, Modern Meadow co-founders Gabor and Andras Forgas respectively invented and helped to commercialise bio-printing, a technology that builds tissues and organ structures based on the computer-controlled delivery of cells in three dimensions. The two previously co-founded Oganovo,a a San Diego-based regenerative medicine company which applies bio-printing to a range of medical applications including drug discovery, drug testing and ultimately transplant tissues. They plan to use the Breakout Labs funding to apply the latest advances in tissue engineering beyond medicine to produce novel consumer biomaterials, including an edible cultured meat prototype that can provide a humane and sustainable source of animal protein to consumers around the world.

“Breakout Labs is a much-needed source of funding and support for emerging technologies like ours,” says Andras Forgacs. “Investors across the board have become more risk-averse and yet early funding is critical to enable truly innovative ideas.”

Modern Meadow, based in Missouri, is combining regenerative medicine with 3D printing to imagine an economic and compassionate solution to a global problem, says Lindy Fisbhurne, Breakout Labs’ executive director. “We hope our support will help propel them through the early stage of their development so they can turn their inspired vision to reality.”

Launched in November 2011, Breakout Labs provides teams of researchers in early-stage companies with the means to pursue their most radical goals in science and technology. To date, the fund has awarded a total of nine grants, of up to $350,000 each. Breakout Labs accepts and funds proposals on a rolling basis.

Although very early days as yet, the concept supported by the fund could bring printing your own steak for the barbie nearer to reality, but just don’t expect it in the near future.

The Modern Meadow innovation is not alone in attempting to solve the world’s future protein needs. New Zealand’s Riddet Institute is also working on the joint PROTEOS project with its counterpart Wageningen University in The Netherlands, “formulating novel solutions that involve extending and using more effectively future animal-based protein sources, transforming the protein supply chain” – essentially growing meat in the laboratory. Project plans involving staff from both organisations will be finalised this year.

 

 

 

Building Export Markets, government releases progress report

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The Government has today unveiled its first Business Growth Agenda Progress report on actions to boost New Zealand exports. It is a timely appearance as the Primary Sector Boot Camp reaches its halfway point in the US.

Launched by Finance Minister Bill English and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce, the Building Export Markets report from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) confirms the Government’s target to increase the contribution of exports to the economy from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP by 2025.

English says this a challenging target and achieving it will require a concerted effort by New Zealand over many years. It will also require the continued development of new and expanding export markets.

“It is only through exporting that New Zealand, with a small domestic market, can deliver the growth and productivity required to enhance the wealth of our country and create more and higher paying jobs,” he says.

“Committing to this ambitious goal means the Government will stay focused on supporting firms to grow their exports.”

Steven Joyce says the report highlights the significant shift in economic power from the West to the East that is expected to happen over the next 20 years.

Building Export Markets is the first of six progress reports on the government’s Business Growth Agenda. Others will address innovation,skills, capital markets, infrastructure and resources. The reports lay out the work programme government agencies are implementing. Each has an informal portfolio group of ministers specifically grouped around the work streams, to drive the Business Growth Agenda forward and focus on what matters to business and companies.

Government intends to see three additional cross-cutting themes to be reflected across the Business Growth Agenda workstreams. These are: Maori Economic Development, Greening Growth; and Regulation. Better telling the ‘New Zealand Story’ is another Government priority and work is already underway with key stakeholders on “developing a compelling and consistent narrative about our country’s special qualities that work for a range of exporters and sectors,” according to the Ministers.

Actions contained in the Building Exports report include improving access to international markets, making it easier to trade from new Zealand, helping businesses internationalise, increasing value from tourism and high-tech manufacturing, growing international education and strengthening high-value manufacturing (including food and beverage manufacturing) and services exports.

“This first report is important, as it lays out the challenge for achieving growth – which is about being much more closely linked into the rest of the world and taking advantage of our opportunities,” says Joyce.

“While the world is going through tough times, the growth in Asian incomes will occur over the next 20 year. So there will be job growth, New Zealand’s challenge is to ensure it occurs in New Zealand, not in Australia, or somewhere else.”

The report shows that beef, lamb and wool accounted for 13 percent of New Zealand’s total $47.7 billion goods exports in 2011.

The Building Export Markets report is available here.

Carter in US for boot camp

Because of its size and importance, New Zealand’s primary sector, which currently accounts for 55 percent of exports is “critical” to achieving the government’s desired growth, the report says, so the outcome of this week’s Primary Sector Boot Camp at Stanford University will also be critical.

Minister of Primary Industries, David Carter, is part of the nine-strong Export Markets ministerial group, which also includes Prime Minister John Key, Steven Joyce, Murray McCully and Tim Groser.  Carter is travelling in the United States this week to attend the Boot Camp and also to talk with US agriculture sector political leaders and officials.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the leaders of some of our most forward-thinking primary sector companies to collaborate on formulating a plan to leverage New Zealand’s competitive advantage globally,” Carter said before he left.

“It’s not often that we can get a powerful group like this representing over 80 percent of New Zealand primary sector exports around the table, and I am confident of a positive outcome.”

About 20 leaders from New Zealand’s dairy, meat, seafood, wine and horticulture industries are among those attending the week-long camp alongside top government representatives from MPI and NZ Trade and Enterprise. The group will be hearing from first class speakers to inspire and motivate their thinking. The event has been supported with a $100,000 grant from AGMARDT.

Among the range of agricultural organisations the Minister is meeting with separately to discuss common New Zealand–US primary industry interests are the Tri-Lamb Group and US Cattlemen’s Association.

“These meetings further strengthen the New Zealand-US bilateral relationship and give our two countries the opportunity to canvass a range of issues in the primary industries policy area.  It is an opportunity to highlight the excellent collaborative work we already have with the US though the Global Research Alliance on agricultural greenhouse gases,” says the Minister.

“I particularly look forward to discussions on the mutual benefits that will be realised through the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement currently under negotiation.

“The TPP is important to New Zealand’s trade future and this visit will provide the opportunity to take political level readings on its progress.”

Be smart: keeping consumers happy

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Keeping its consumers happy and listening to what they want has significantly improved McDonald’s business performance including financial returns, according to one of the company’s top China-based executives.

Introduced as a “good friend of New Zealand beef” at the Red Meat Sector Conference, Arron Hoyle, McDonald’s senior director and head of strategy for China and Hong Kong and a major customer for New Zealand’s lean manufacturing beef, said that the result deserved “a massive thank you to the New Zealand meat industry.”

McDonald’s had selected New Zealand and Australia as its sources of beef for the region because of the two countries’ reputations for food safety. While the US is still the largest market for the company, the company is significantly growing its presence in the APMEA countries.

In 1990, McDonald’s entered China, the fastest growing market in the world, when it opened its first store in Beijing. In 2010, it had 1,000 stores open and by 2013 will have 2,000.

All new stores will have a uniquely McDonald’s style, reflecting Chinese expectations for a modern, trendy image.

“We found that we need to ensure consistency in supply of style and expectations.”

There is no silver bullet, he went on to say. “You have to work extremely hard and to understand your consumer better than your husband or wife.”

He believes that New Zealand is well positioned to grow in Asia, particularly in China with its need to “import virtual water” due to ever growing water constraints as the country develops.

The Chinese market changes rapidly depending on the supply/demand dynamic. McDonald’s is forecasting beef growth to 7-8 million tonnes a year by 2020 and McDonald’s China demand alone to surpass 60,000 metric tonnes per annum.

McDonald’s likes to think it’s a great partner for NZ, says Hoyle, “the industry and all suppliers we partner with, we really like New Zealand beef. We don’t manage the supplier, we manage the business together in a partnership with suppliers.”

For the New Zealand beef team, it’s going to be a case of being better at the value chain, to execute against the opportunity, measure effectiveness versus efficiency and being faster than the competition to solutions.

“The data is showing us the opportunity is behind the hill. We need to work together to get there,” he said.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (August/September 2012).

Delivered: second Red Meat Sector Conference

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Delivered, as promised: Excellent, inspirational and thought-provoking speakers, all appearing in a packed programme for the 250 delegates attending the second Red Meat Sector conference.

Congratulations must go to the Meat Industry Association (MIA) and Beef + Lamb NZ Ltd (B+LNZ), joint organisers of this year’s well-attended Red Meat Sector Conference at Rydges Lakeland Resort hotel in Queenstown.

Alongside heartening optimism for future demand for red meat, recurrent themes were the massive potential for New Zealand of emerging markets in Asia, especially China, water issues, the need to utilise best practice, the need for all links in the chain to tell the industry’s story to the public, plus the rapid emergence of social media as a tool for communicating with consumers.

In his opening comments, MIA chairman Bill Falconer also noted that, while not as quickly as some would like, encouraging progress is being made on the Red Meat Sector Strategy and that “small starts are being made across the board.” Later in the day Rob Davison, from the B+LNZ Economic Service, outlined a number of matrices that the Economic Service is developing that will help to track progress against the strategy, and these matrices will “focus conversations, thinking and actions to drive the future”.

The Conference also saw the announcement of new Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) funding for the red meat sector, for a project to develop high-value grass-fed marbled beef, using Waygu genetics.

All the presentations were a veritable smorgasbord of information, packed with facts, statistics and views from many facets of the industry, enabling delegates to pick out what was relevant for their part of the value chain. While every single one of the speakers was passionate and eloquent about their topic, from an export food manufacturing perspective the highlights were excellent presentations from McDonald’s Arron Hoyle and vertically integrated meat processor Agri Beef’s Rick Stott from the US.

Besides the serious business, there was entertainment and laughter too. Lunch – finger food featuring B+LNZ Ambassador chef Ben Battersbury’s speciality “alternative cuts, not cheap cuts” like lamb riblets –  was amusingly heralded with witty comments from him. After dinner speaker Davey Hughes of Swazi Apparel gave an hilarious account of hunting expeditions in Africa and shared a few (tongue-in-cheek) items from his latest collection, including a new ‘mankini’.

Also noteworthy, was a significant Australian presence at the conference in the form of representatives from Meat & Livestock Australia and Aus-Meat. This put physical form to MLA’s managing director Scott Hansen’s opening comment in his presentation that “Australia sees a close collaboration with New Zealand.”

There was positive feedback from delegates, who came from all parts of the sector, including farmers, processors, equipment suppliers, researchers and media.

This article appeared in Food NZ magazine (August/September 2012). Copies of most of the conference presentations are available at www.mia.co.nz or redmeatsector.co.nz.

 

The future is bright

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The future looks bright for New Zealand’s red meat export business, if you go by the presentations at the recent Red Meat Sector Conference in Queenstown.

Over 250 delegates, drawn from processing, farmers, service companies, shippers, economists, and government officials, crammed into the Rydges Lakeland Resort hotel on Monday 16 July for an absolutely packed itinerary of presentations from 17 excellent speakers – several of them from overseas – all with inspirational and thought-provoking messages.

The veritable smorgabord of information, mustered back into its time slots by some able session chairmen, revealed recurrent themes of massive potential for New Zealand meat in emerging markets in Asia, especially China, water issues, the need to engage in best practice, to tell the industry’s story to the public and the rapid, mind-boggling change the emergence of social media has wrought on getting those messages out there.

The first early shoots of progress on the Red Meat Sector Strategy (RMSS) were evident too, not as fast as some would  like, but it’s a start. Nearly a quarter of billion dollars of industry-government money is being spent on re-shaping and vertically integrating some parts of the red meat chain over the next seven years through Primary Growth Partnerships (PGP) programmes. These are alone forecast to add somewhere in the region of $3 billion to the country’s GDP by the mid-2020s. Meanwhile B+LNZ Economic Service’s team, under the guidance of Rob Davidson, have been developing a natty set of matrices that will enable industry to see how it is progressing along the Strategy’s path (more of that later).

Delegates will be picking out of it what they need. They were certainly upbeat and eager to hear more right to the last speaker of the business sessions, Nigel Latta, who talked about behavioural change and how to make it.

There is no doubt that more is bound to come from discussions at conference and later. Well done to the joint organisers, the Meat Industry Association and Beef+Lamb NZ Ltd.

A more full report will appear in Food NZ August/September 2012 magazine in early August and MeatExportNZ will be covering other items emanating from the conference over the coming week or so. You can find most of the presentations already up online at the MIA website, along with the programme.

 


Animal welfare initiatives

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A number of animal welfare initiatives, including newly updated guidelines for animal transport within New Zealand, a review of the Animal Welfare Act 1999, development of a new national strategy, plus distribution of a revised toolkit for farmers are underway.

A newly updated Transport within New Zealand Code of Animal Welfare was issued by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) in 2011, alongside a review of the code for Meat Chickens and a new Goats code, according to the Committee’s newly released 2011 annual report.

The Transport Code covers all animals transported by land, sea or air within New Zealand. It provides clarity about who is responsible for the welfare of animals at all stages of transportation and gives direction about how this must be achieved.

Committee chairman John Hellstrom, says the Code has been rapidly adopted by industry since its launch in September. “It is gratifying to see this code, like the earlier dairy, sheep and beef and pig codes being widely adopted within industry guideline.”

Other activities for the year covered in the annual report included developing advice for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Minister on aspects of the proposed revision of the Animal Welfare Act 1999. Among the issues considered were the future roles of the committee, the effectiveness of Codes of Welfare and alternatives, the welfare of wildlife and methods for increasing the transparency of NAWAC’s process and activities.

NAWAC is an independent advisory committee to the Minister for Primary Industries. It was established under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 to provide advice to Ministers on matters relating to the welfare of animals in New Zealand and to develop codes of welfare.

A copy of the new Code can be downloaded from MPI’s website, where a hard copy can also be ordered.

New national strategy

Alongside the review of the Act, MPI is also currently working on the development of a national strategy for animal welfare, which will set the future direction of animal welfare in New Zealand and outline the Government’s key priorities over the next few years, according to MPI’s newsletter Welfare Pulse. Input has been obtained from key stakeholders like vets, animal industries, animal advocacy groups and users of animals in research and teaching.

The final strategy and legislative proposals will be presented to the Minister for Primary Industries in late 2012 or early 2013. It is intended that an amendment Bill be introduced to the House during the first half of next year.

Revision of Animal Welfare Toolkit

This activity adds to the newly re-launched Animal Welfare Toolkit for farmers. This was released at the Federated Farmers conference recently and is now being distributed to farmers nationally. Beef + Lamb NZ Ltd, Deer Industry New Zealand, Federated Farmers and the New Zealand Veterinary Association were among the organisations working on the revision with MPI. A copy can be downloaded here (search ‘Animal Welfare Toolkit’).