Category Archives: Meat Export NZ

Export and marketing of NZ meats destined for importers, manufacturing, wholesale, cash-and-carry,retail, foodservice, HRI etc in markets such as US, UK, Asia, France etc using shippers and logistics.

Building Export Markets, government releases progress report

Posted on by
Reply

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.”

New videos for New Zealand venison

Posted on by
Reply

A new series of videos, produced for Deer Industry New Zealand, is showing British consumers how to cook New Zealand venison.Young and talented British celebrity chef Sophie Wright, a former NZ-UK Link Foundation Culinary Challenge award winner, demonstrates below how to make Venison Wellington.

Other recipes from Sophie, including Venison Ragout, Venison Pie and how to cook venison steaks perfectly, are included in the series produced by British media production company Breeze and Freeze for Deer Industry New Zealand.

All have been added to Deer Industry New Zealand’s You Tube Channel DINZVMSM, which features culinary and butchery demonstrations of New Zealand venison by executive chef Graham Brown and Michael Coughlin, amongst others.

 

Forming a ‘coalition of the willing’ more important for Boot Camp, says Barber

Posted on by
Reply

Forming a ‘coalition of the willing’ – those who want to work together to get further up the value chain – is more important than forming a new Agri-Food Board, says meat industry commentator Allan Barber.

In an item published online last week on interest.co.nz, he writes that although the proposed Agri-Board will be discussed at the forthcoming agri-food chief executives’ Boot Camp at Stanford University, “it is unlikely to be the main thrust of the gathering, which is intended to generate alignment an co-operation between and within agri-foods sectors.”

While there is “much logic and common sense” in the recent Riddet Institute’s report Call to Arms, calling for a trebling of agri-foods turnover, there is “nagging suspicion that it is just another strategy document, which, despite its stated intentions, will not result in a significant shift in behaviour,” he says.

He suspects that among the Boot Camp participants there will be many of those people who would be expected to be on an Agri-Foods board. “However, they will be too busy getting on with translating ideas into action to have time to worry about joining another board.”

Read his full article here …

In the news this week (3)

Posted on by
Reply

People are key to the success of Riddet Institute’s Agri-Food Strategy wrote Jon Morgan in a Dominion Post opinion piece early on last week. “The prize is too great to abandon,” he said.

So, focus is now shifting to the week-long chief executives’ Primary Sector Boot Camp at Stanford University in California later this month, which will be attended by over 20 chief executives including meat industry leaders Keith Cooper of Silver Fern Farms and Mark Clarkson of ANZCO Foods, alongside Minister of Primary Industries David Carter. On the table for discussion will be the Agri-Food Strategy.

Agmardt is principal sponsor of the private sector-led chief executive forum designed to unlock the global potential of New Zealand’s primary sector. At the time of the sponsorship announcement at the end of April, Jeff Grant chairman of the Agmardt board of trustees said he regarded the boot camp as an ideal fit under the grant body’s new strategic priorities.

“A key outcome of the boot camp is to explore and drive in-market collaboration within New Zealand’s primary sector, which is strongly aligned with Agmardt’s new strategy to fund activities that enable New Zealand agribusiness to identify and explore potential opportunities within the global marketplace.”

Grant said the willingness by senior industry leaders to be involved in the camp to discuss and explore strategies for greater collaboration and alignment across a wide range of primary industries, “is extremely encouraging.”

Other supporters of the Primary Sector Boot Camp, which will comprise leaders from the dairy, beef, sheep, seafood, viticulture and horticulture sectors, include the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Ministry for Primary Industries and NZ Trade and Enterprise.

+++

Other news appearing over the week included:

Protein sources of the future –A new New Zealand/Dutch study has outlined the coming challenges to meeting future demand for protein. In a review published this week in the journal Trends in Food Science and Technology, Dr Mike Boland from the Riddet Institute and his colleagues at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands have drawn on a range of research sources to peer into the future of the world’s food supply. They say, as demand is outstripping supply of meat, mankind will “need to get creative” with its protein sources, considering competition between humans and pet food industries, noting that rabbits and other novel animal species, “should not be discounted as having an important part to play in future animal protein production systems,” and speculate that there may be ways to derive dietary protein from food waste from biofuel crop leftovers. Whatever happens, consumer acceptance will be key, say the authors.

New NZTE chairman – Interesting to note that former Fonterra chief executive, Andrew Ferrier, has been named as the new chairman of the New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) board. Replacing Jon Mayson, he will commence his three year term on 1 November. Announcing the appointment, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says that Ferrier will bring “strong governance and strategic capability to the NZTE board”. Ferrier is a director of Orion Health Ltd and CANZ Capital Ltd. He was appointed to the University of Auckland Council in March 2012. Prior to his work with Fonterra, he was involved with the global sugar industry. Born in Canada, he has been a New Zealand citizen since 2008.

A new Code of Welfare for Meat Chickens came into effect on 26 July, setting out the minimum standards and best practice guidelines for the poultry industry. The new Code replaces the Code of Welfare for Broiler Chickens that was released in 2003. The new Code has a broader scope and includes chickens that have access to the outdoors, says the National Animal Welfare Advisory Council (NAWAC). “Another key change is that farmers will have to take the environment of the chicken into account when deciding how many chickens to keep in a designated area,” NAWAC chair John Hellström says. “Farmers will also be required to stay within the minimum standards for stocking density, but they will now have to also consider things like litter quality, lighting, air quality and temperature when deciding how to house their chickens.” Find out more here.

NZUS Council sponsors MPs visit to Washington – Two MPs Peseta Sam Lotu-Liga and Hon Shane Jones, co-chairs of the New Zealand US Parliamentary Friendship Group, recently returned from a successful NZUS Council sponsored visit to Washington DC. The visit – particularly timely given the stage of the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations – raised NZ’s profile and also gave the MPS the chance to gain valuable insights about US negotiating interests. In a full programme over a four-day visit, the MPs met with members of the Friends of NZ Congressional Caucus and a range of Congressional representatives and had meetings with senior officials in the State Department, Treasury and US Trade Representative’s office. They were also guests of honour at a well-attended lunch hosted by the US NZ Council. Other guests included Congressional staff, senior US company executives and Council members and supporters. The NZ US Council met the costs of the MPs domestic travel in the US and related on-the-ground costs. Arrangements in Washington were made by the New Zealand Embassy.

World price slump put lamb back on Kiwi menus – the NZ Herald reported over the weekend on the news that prices for Kiwi consumers are down too and they are responding enthusiastically. Read more… 

Finally, with the London Olympics in full swing this week, it seems only right to congratulate all of the Kiwi athletes, but particularly B+LNZ Inc’s bronze medal award-winning Iron Maidens Rebecca Scown and Juliette Haigh for their  success in the women’s pairs (rowing) and Alison Shanks (cyclist) for her tremendous efforts in the team event. All the best now to Sarah Walker (BMX) for her event yet to come on the world sports stage. Go Team NZ!!


 

 

 

 

 

Be smart: keeping consumers happy

Posted on by
Reply

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).

Full cup, steady hand

Posted on by
Reply

While New Zealand sheepmeat producers have been enjoying a ‘full cup’ in recent times, with strong farmgate returns, a ‘steady hand’ will be needed to balance future production levels with demand uncertainty across European markets.

A newly released report Sheepmeat – full cup, steady hand from global agribusiness banking specialist, Rabobank, says that the strong farmgate returns in the past two seasons, have been as a result of retail price increases and limited supply availability.

Report co-author Hayley Moynihan says global sheepmeat supplies are forecast to increase from 2013, off a low productive base, although this volume growth is expected to be modest and availability will not recover 2010 levels until 2015.

“While sheepmeat demand has softened in developed markets, we expect retail prices will normalise at new levels – typically 10 percent higher than the three-year average for most regions,” she says.

“For New Zealand producers, a positive outlook will persist in export markets as the economic outlook improves and the market balance remains tipped in their favour.”

As the governments of the EU countries seek to restore balance to their economies, policy changes are expected to place increasing pressure on consumer purchasing powers, says Moynihan. In real terms, the increased cost of living for the average EU consumer is likely to exceed any growth in income, at least for the next 12 to 24 months.

Meat price inflation has led the charge in annual food prices, averaging 4.5 percent year-on-year, with eastern European countries experiencing increases as high as 10 percent in 2011.

“These factors can be expected to weigh heavily on sheepmeat demand and to limit growth prospects.”

Rabobank is picking a slow recovery for developed markets through to the end of 2013. “Emerging markets will continue to grow, albeit slightly below the rate of previous years and offer opportunities for sheepmeat demand growth,” says Moynihan.

The Rabobank report says retail prices will also be influenced by continued strength of competing meat prices; the impact of lower beef production from the US and EU on global supplies; and the rising beef production costs from Brazil, China and Australia..

“These factors are likely to mean that retail price movements for lower-value cuts will continue to rise faster than high-end cuts. This will be particularly evident across emerging economies and consequently only provide limited upward pressure on farmgate returns for exporters,” it says.

Moynihan says that by 2015, sheepmeat production from key exporting regions is expected to lift by an additional 135,000 tonnes a year, which would bring global export supply back to 2010 levels.

Meat price outlook is positive in spite of short-term wobbles

Posted on by
Reply

The exchange rate and uncertainty in the Eurozone remain the biggest negatives for red meat exports in the short-term, but industry commentator Allan Barber believes the outlook is sill positive heading into next year.

“It’s very hard to pick what will happen in Europe, which will inevitably have a large impact on lamb prices for the foreseeable future,” he says. “Southern Europe and the UK are technically in recession and are unlikely to improve much, at least until the European Central Bank (ECB) manages to sort out how it will cope with the trials of Greece, Spain and others.

“But the longer term prospects for lamb are still favourable, once inventories from the season just completed have moved through the trade.” Read more ….

Call to arms for agri-food

Posted on by
1

A proposal for a new Agri-Food Board is centre of a comprehensive new strategy aimed at tripling the value of exports for the agri-food sector to about $60 billion.

The Riddet Institute, a national centre of research excellence focusing on food, digestive physiology and nutrition, issued a ‘Call to Arms’ yesterday through the launch of its independent report on the future of New Zealand’s agri-food sector. The report calls for a joint approach from industry and government to drive the activities needed to treble the value of exports in the sector by 2025, as suggested in the Government’s Economic Growth Agenda in 2009.

The report contains options on how sector leaders can work together and why the agri-food industry should lead the strategy implementation work.

It was commissioned by the Riddet Institute and developed by an independent ‘thought leadership’ team led by Dr Kevin Marshall, former chief executive of the Dairy Research Institute, and prepared in response to a call by industry senior executives, who challenged the Institute in 2010 at its annual summit to develop a strategy for science and education-led economic advancement of the New Zealand food industry.

Dr Marshall said: “Our strategies are neither new nor unique, but, in the past, implementation by industry has failed. Crucially, we have provided a pathway and a proposed mechanism for action that will work. There is urgency now because New Zealand faces a mediocre economic future if we don’t drive the major recommendations in this report to fruition.

“Agri-food leaders need to know what to do, how to do it and how to develop the resources they need to do it effectively.”

Welcomed by the Minister

Minister for Primary Industries David Carter welcomed the report, which he said was a vital contribution.

“The Strategy Report highlights that if we are to achieve the standard of living we aspire to by 2025, we must treble the real value of our food exports to about $60 billion,” the Minister said, adding that to achieve a target of real compound growth rate of seven percent over the next 13 years, New Zealand needs to close a gap of current progress of around three percent.

“While the agri-food sectors have been successful, we need to grow faster. To realise growth, we need to collaborate, be innovative, build on our strengths and continue to earn our reputation for safe, high quality food, produced in a sustainable manner.”

New Zealand is lucky to have repositioned itself away from traditional markets, which are currently facing problems, towards Asia. “In the past financial year, exports to China have jumped by nearly 40 percent,” he said.

The Strategy

The task at hand “will not be achieved with business as usual,” Marshall explained.

He outlined the four transformational strategies proposed in the report are to:

  • Selectively and profitably increase the quantities and sales of the current range of agri-food products.
  • Profitably produce and market, new, innovative, high value food and beverage products.
  • Develop value chains that enhance the integrity, value and delivery of New Zealand products and increase profits to producers, processors and exporters, and
  • Become world leaders in sustainability and product integrity.

Four ‘enablers’ back the strategies. These include the development of transformational industry and Government leadership, strong consumer-driven export marketing of branded and consumer and ingredient product, increasing the capability and skills of the agri-food industry and supporting industries and increasing the amount and effectiveness of investment in innovation, research, development and extension supporting the agri-food industry.

He said the think-tank determined that current food industry strategies have not been achieved as they “depended too much on government taking the lead” and that the “captains of industry have not stepped up to take the leadership role.”

For that reason, the most important proposal is to establish an Agri-Food Board “to be the focal point for sector leaders to work together and for industry to lead the work with Government, overcoming barriers to implementation.”

Elements of the strategy link in with thoughts in KPMG’s Agribusiness Agenda for 2012, ‘People Unlocking the Future’ ably presented at the launch Ben van Delden. It also reinforces what the meat industry is already doing with the Red Meat Sector Strategy, B+LNZ Ltd chairman Mike Petersen said.

Strategic echoes include opening access to markets, together with the sector becoming more consumer-driven and collaborative. Discussion also worked its way around the need to attract, develop and retain new graduates and workers for the agri-food sector, the need to develop leadership within the industry and for behaviour and attitude change.

Over 120 attended the launch in Wellington that was attended by the Minister, agri-food industry leaders and senior government officials. Also speaking was NZ Merino’s John Brackenridge. The report will be on the agenda at the forthcoming Primary Industry Chief Executives’ Boot Camp in August at Stanford University, California.

Meat industry leaders, including Keith Cooper of Silver Fern Farms, Sir Graeme Harrison of ANZCO Foods, Sam Robinson of AgResearch, were amongst those who had contributed to the report.

The report is well worth a read to see where the sector’s going. Download a pdf copy of A Call to Arms: A Contribution to New Zealand Agri-Food Strategy or ask for a hard copy by emailing [email protected].