Telling the NZ story to the world

INTEREST

Telling the NZ story to the world Anyone remotely interested in how other countries promote themselves, their food and their farmers is bound to have looked at Ireland’s Origin Green website. As always the Irish have told a great story. WORDS BY RICHARD RENNIE Images of sweeping vistas of green Irish fields, happy farming families and healthy livestock rightly leave any New Zealander wondering “why can’t we do that?” when telling our story to the world.

Those compelling images are also backed up with comprehensive standards for farmers, food processors and marketers to comply with to give the Origin Green label integrity.

And after only two years in existence the Irish primary sector has almost entirely bought into the exercise, reporting sign in rates of over 80% across both the farming and the processing sectors.

If the Irish have prompted New Zealand to do a double take and consider catching up, then trade envoy and New Zealand Inc. Champion Mike Petersen is ensuring the need for New Zealand to tell its story to the world maintains momentum. But he also hopes New Zealand will deliver a message even more compelling than what the Irish have come up with.

Largely behind closed doors in 2016 an initiative has begun to formulate a “brand NZ” that captures 56

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at least all the aspects of sustainability, social responsibility, and animal welfare that the Irish have with Origin Green.

He is very confident that some very clear lines will be drawn around what a “NZ Inc” brand story may look like as cross industry support grows.

“And it is a concept that is starting to get traction at last” says Petersen who admits to having “banged on” about the idea for some time without getting much traction.

But his championing of such a national identity has not been without its critics.

“It is this need to have a coherent New Zealand story that we can take to the world. We are unusual in that most countries around the globe will consume 90% of what they produce, and export the rest. We happen to be the other way around, and we need to pull a story together that we can tell well and compellingly.”

In Ireland the Origin Green initiative was developed from the Food Board. But Petersen is confident the Ministry for Primary Industries here could facilitate the development of a New Zealand Story and integrity brand, without having to impose a “top down”“thou must” approach to getting buy in from the primary and processing sectors.

In a rare conference address Synlait Chief Executive John Penno questioned the value of the “NZ story”.

When addressing the Agricultural and Horticultural Science Institute Forum earlier this year he cautioned about having a “brand NZ”.

Instead he said Synlait was opting to create a brand and partners for itself, not New Zealand.

That way all the risks associated with being “NZ” are mitigated. Given the food scares that have dogged the dairy sector in the past 10 years, such an approach may be understandable.

Dr Penno also said New Zealand had no more of a clean green advantage than Australia, France, Italy or the Netherlands, and we should not expect anyone to pay more for products simply because they are from New Zealand.

“There is a lot of information gleaned from the tools and models developed, making approaches very targeted, very responsive and nimble to what consumers need.”

With other countries working hard to formulate national food “brands” including the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, the clock is ticking for New Zealand to bring a unified identity to the world.

Petersen expects much to be finalised this year, with a final vision and strategy well in place by the year’s end.

“And it is quite likely to be that each sector has standards and benchmarks in place that can come into the quality mark’s standards without having to be re-created. We have all the standards there, we just have not done a very good job of pulling them all together across the entire industry in the past.”

Petersen has some strong support through the sector.

Lewis Road Creamery founder Peter Cullinane has urged the sector to act collectively, combining Tourism New Zealand’s $80 million a year of overseas marketing spend with a food focus pitch on our quality produce.

Departing Massey University Vice Chancellor Steve Maharey has also endorsed a NZ quality mark.

“I do not think anyone can reproduce the food story New Zealand is known for. The Irish are largely pitching to Europe, but we are pitching to Asia which is hugely larger.”

He acknowledges there are steps to creating such a brand with the Te Hono movement.

“But I tend to think in terms of country, rather than company. The New Zealand food story is something that can spin off on other aspects like tourism. We do not give the people visiting here enough to spend their money on, having high value food products they can try here and then buy at home is one.”

He said ideally Synlait’s partners would prefer locally sourced products but were often unable to acquire them so New Zealand became almost a default option.

Similarly Tatua Co-operative Dairy Chief Executive Paul McGilvary has cautioned linking all industries together does create some risks, with one company’s failure causing all to fail.

He told delegates at the Dairy NZ Farmer Forum this year that New Zealand had to build a story the doesn’t create something that cannot be lived up to.

While acknowledging that caution, Mike Petersen says there does not need to be a product brand/ brand NZ debate, and that the two can sit together.

“We see the NZ side as being more of a quality mark than a brand per se, it sits under any product branding that comes on top of it, endorsing its quality and integrity.”

He is concerned some companies are already formulating their own integrity type brands, often highlighting the product has been “grass fed” or

“NZ pure”, with each company standard being open to question by increasingly label reading consumers.

“The strength of what the Irish have done is that they have done it as one, with their brands above that.”

He says while large food companies are trusted to a degree, only an independently endorsed and accredited quality mark will become universally accepted by consumers.

The Irish export about 50% of their output, much of it within the European Union catchment. In contrast New Zealand exports 90%, spread across Asian, Middle Eastern and Western cultures, all bringing their own consumer expectations to their food.

“This is why we will have to go a step further than Origin Green, to adjust our message to each of these markets.”

He says despite what some may claim, primary sector processors have engaged in a lot of consumer research within these markets.

ABOVE: Mike Peterson, New Zealand Inc. Champion

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