NZ must target the top products
New Zealand food producers need to narrow their focus to the ‘‘fivestar hotel’’ market if they want to grow their business.
That was the message being touted to a packed auditorium in Palmerston North on Friday morning during the ASB Perspective 2025 panel discussion involving some of the most influential people in the country’s food industry.
The panel, part of the NZ Agrifood Investment Week, focused on what New Zealand needs to do to become the ‘‘restaurant to the world’’ by 2025.
KPMG farm enterprise specialist Julia Jones said New Zealand could feed a lot of people, but there was potential to grow that number if the country moved away from trying to provide everything for everyone.
‘‘We can maybe feed 800 million people, but only feed them their premium diet and be like a fivestar hotel.
‘‘However, five-star hotels get more complaints than any other, because the expectations are so much higher.’’
Listening to customers in overseas markets, looking at trends like alternative proteins and synthetic non-animal milk, and moving with the times would help with reaching that target, she said.
‘‘Just because they want something, and we don’t want to change, doesn’t mean we should ignore it.’’
Doing so would enable New Zealand businesses to make more money – something businesses were a bit shy about, Jones said.
Many of the questions submitted to the panel were about companies being nimble enough to change with food trends.
Fonterra’s general manager of New Zealand industry Jo Finer said people had to be realistic about how long it sometimes took to get investment ready for new equipment.
But those investments in technology, such as equipment that cut the production time of mozzarella cheese from three months to six hours, were creating gains, she said.
‘‘Our cheese is on half of the pizzas in China.’’
Fonterra was also working on new research technology, such as using facial recognition equipment to see how consumers reacted when trying products, she said.
They also have staff working with chefs in overseas restaurants to find out what they needed, then taking those ideas to make new products, she said.
It is a tactic Coastal Spring Lamb, winner of the supreme award at the New Zealand Food Awards in 2016, also uses.
Co-owner Suze Redmayne said they were talking to chefs overseas about what they wanted, such as smaller lamb racks, and did what they could to deliver. ‘‘Rather than waving at the lambs when they leave on the truck, it’s really enjoyable to be involved in the valueadd chain.’’
Wellington on a Plate festival director Sarah Meikle said New Zealand was well known as a food producing country, but the country’s food culture was lacking. ‘‘People still see us as a supermarket to the world, and visitors don’t expect a gourmet food destination.
‘‘We need to move from being a bit Pak ‘n Save to being more premium.’’
She cited the work of Rene Redzepi with his Danish restaurant Noma.
‘‘No-one had heard of Nordic cuisine, but it took one man to take that cuisine to the world. Flavours are the cheapest souvenirs you can take away from a place. You don’t have to bungy jump here, but you do have to eat.’’