EXPORT REPORT
CATHERINE BEARD REPORTS ON THE FOOD & BEVERAGE INFORMATION PROJECT, WHICH IDENTIFIES HIGH POTENTIAL F& B OPPORTUNITIES IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA.
IN AN ERA of new beginnings and investing in our future, I’m often asked where the opportunities lie for exporters, particularly in the food and beverage sector.
This sector is important to pay attention to because New Zealand is in the middle of a fundamental transition from feeding Westerners to feeding the Asia-Pacific region.
While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have access to market intelligence (which you can access too) that helps identify trends, expected areas of growth, and changes in products and industry structure.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment produces some really useful reports from its research into New Zealand’s emerging markets. Our FTAs with Australia, ASEAN and China are helping to provide some significant opportunities in these markets.
The nature of our food and beverage exports has changed significantly since the 1950s, when we were the UK’s market garden; targeting the British wholesaler and shopkeeper with traditional English foods and ingredients in bulk, with almost no beverages.
The future looks very different. As we look towards the 2050s, our target market for F& B exports is the middle-class Asian consumer and bar/restaurant manager. Bulk ingredients are being replaced by premium luxury finished goods, predominantly processed foods and beverages.
Exactly where the opportunities are to be found lies in the intersection of what East and Southeast Asia wants, and what New Zealand can produce.
The Food & Beverage Information Project seeks to identify and highlight the high potential opportunities in this area. It is producing reports such as What does Asia want for dinner? to really delve deeper into the market opportunities, analysing 586 subcategories of food and beverages – for example, not just ‘meat’, but ‘ frozen bovine livers’. It also tells us what Asia does not want or need – because they produce enough themselves, or just don’t consume it.
After much analysis, the project has identified 20 well placed emerging market opportunities in East/Southeast Asia with high growth potential and a good fit for New Zealand. These include: infant formula, dairy nutritionals, honey, brandy/cognac, champagne/ sparkling wine, chocolate, whiskey/ bourbon, salmon, cherries, nuts and innovative food.
East/Southeast Asia has low/ no production and therefore primarily imports salmon, barley, blueberries, raspberries, pistachios, virgin olive oil, champagne, brandy and whiskey.
Identifying these key market opportunities correctly is imperative because there is limited potential to increase the farm area of New Zealand, so we will have to change existing land use. There could also be the following issues for these emerging opportunities: geographic and climatic barriers, provenance, origin or brand may matter, and products will need to be defensible.
But let’s keep in mind the bigger picture opportunity for New Zealand as a country. It is the same size as Italy, which feeds a population of 60 million, and exports twice as much F&B as New Zealand. New Zealand is also still a young country and on the journey of discovering its comparative advantage. And in the past 20 years, wine, honey, aquaculture and avocadoes have gone from nearly zero to hero.
There are still more markets and sectors to conquer, and I look forward to watching our exports seizing opportunities and flourishing in the Asia-Pacific region.