KiwiBrothersTM make their China debut
Zespri has unveiled the award-winning KiwiBrothersTM mascots in China for the first time to market its large kiwifruit crop.
Beware the the ‘bok choy effect’.
That warning came from KPMG’s global head of agri, Ian Proudfoot, at the recent Zespri conference in Tauranga.
Proudfoot says the ‘bok choy effect’ is a way of explaining some changes taking place in markets in Asia.
What is changing more is our diet in the west and we as food producers need to recognise and understand this, Proudfoot says. A good example of the ‘bok choy effect’ is seen in Melbourne where a friend of his lives in a Vietnamese suburb.
“Twenty years ago when Zespri was founded he would have been able to go to his supermarket and buy [only] meat and three veg. Today he goes there and buys 30 or 40 different kinds of Chinese greens and a whole range of other ‘inspirational’ products. He says his diet is far better.”
Proudfoot says evolution is coming to the food sector and people are looking at a whole range of future alternatives in the future –possibly even laboratory-created food.
While NZ produces enough food to feed 40 million people, it should look to feed 800 million, he says. This would be possible if our food products became a smaller but high value addition to people’s diets.
Another 16 commercial beef farmers have been selected to take part in the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme designed to help drive the uptake of genetics in the industry.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Kiwi exporters will be $100 million better off today as the NZ-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) comes into force.
Making things simpler, not harder, for deer farmers in farm planning and coping with regulations is Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) industry capability manager John Ladley’s current focus.
Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) is launching an online business directory called The Country Women’s Collective to promote and support entrepreneurial rural women.
New Zealand actor Sam Neill has joined the Campaign for Wool NZ as an ambassador, lending his name and profile to educate and advocate for New Zealand strong wool.
Living labs that bring together expertise at locations around New Zealand are among potential solutions identified by researchers to help the country move towards a more climate resilient future.