Wednesday, 31 July 2024 08:55

Grass-fed campaign in China

Written by  Peter Burke
Meat Industry Association chair Nathan Guy. Meat Industry Association chair Nathan Guy.

The meat industry is launching a campaign in China to make consumers aware of the unique health attributes of New Zealand's grass-fed animal meat.

Meat Industry Association (MIA) chair Nathan Guy says, while NZ has an FTA with China, 40 other countries also have access to that market and the time has come to make a big push to tell consumers that our products are better than our competitors.

"A problem we have in China is that consumers look at the supermarket shelf and they see grain-fed beef which they consider superior. It's higher priced and gets a premium, while our lean beef tends to be seen as something of a commodity, and we must change that and other misconceptions," he says.

To do this, MIA, meat processing companies and Beef + Lamb NZ are jointly developing a new supercharged and refocused version of the Taste Pure Nature awareness programme.

The new campaign will be industry-led and funded, hopefully with government help, MIA and B+LNZ have agreed to put in $2 million each over three years and they hope the government will make a similar contribution.

According to Guy, it will be up to the marketing managers of the processing companies to devise the programme.

"We are going to call it 'country of origin' and it will be around our natural attributes: animals, outdoors, health and nutrition - all the great attributes that are currently lost in translation in the market. Our competitors are making similar claims, so we can't afford to sleepwalk given that competition is so rife in China. Doing nothing is now not an option," he says.

Guy says they plan to launch the campaign at a huge food expo in Shanghai in November.

More like this

2024 red meat exports end on a high

New Zealand's red meat exports for 2024 finished on a positive note, with total export value increasing 17% over last December to reach $1.04 billion, according to the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

Featured

Pāmu farm opens gate to urban visitors

For many urban New Zealanders, stepping into Pāmu’s Pinta dairy farm near Taupo last month was the first time they had had the chance to experience farm life up close.

Afimilk appoints new general manager

Afimilk, a global dairy farm management solutions provider, has appointed Justin Miller as the new general manager for New Zealand and Australia.

National

Machinery & Products

Alpego eyes electric power harrow

Distributed by OriginAg in New Zealand, Italian manufacturer Alpego recently showed its three metre Alysium electric power harrow at the…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Dodgy!

OPINION: If you believe Maori Party president John Tamihere’s claim that “nothing dodgy” occurred at Manurewa Marae during the last…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter