NZ meat’s grand brand plan

The new brand is aimed at promoting generic quality assurance; it will not supplant existing company brands. 

These three words are chosen by the meat industry as summarising the uniqueness of New Zealand red meat. 

They underpin new country-of-origin branding aimed at attracting overseas consumers to NZ products and differentiating NZ products from our competitors’ products. The concept was unveiled at BLNZ’s recent Ag Innovation day.

BLNZ market development manager Nick Beeby said the brand is a direct response to their research of consumer trends, especially at the high end of markets. 

The words were carefully chosen, he told Rural News.

“ ‘Taste’ invites people to try our products and get a different flavour experience. The words ‘pure’ and ‘nature’ are in response to people who want to choose natural food.

“This stems from what is known as ‘food anxiety’ -- an adverse reaction to the industrialisation of farming. People want to know how products they are eating were raised and in particular if they were raised naturally.” 

Beeby says some consumers will go to great lengths to search out what they consider is natural food. He says they will go on social media and often travel great distances to find a supermarket that sells product that aligns with their values. 

Beeby says high-end consumers are concerned about climate change, sustainability and their personal health and wellbeing; they are also concerned about animal welfare

“To me the stars are aligning for NZ. Here are consumers searching for that natural experience, which we have and no one else can create on a national scale. 

“An overseas foodie told me that NZ farms look like resorts. When he came to NZ he was gobsmacked about what we do on a national scale. He told me you will always see pockets of this in other countries, but you don’t see it on the scale we have in NZ.” 

This foodie also said NZ seems to lack the pride in how good it is and that we need to ‘toot our horn’ more.

BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison says consumers are increasingly anxious, driven by food scares, the use of hormones and antibiotics, and environmental and animal welfare concerns. 

 “Our research shows consumers will pay a premium for naturally raised, grass-fed, hormone-free and antibiotic-free red meat.  We are seeing strong demand in the US and opportunities to get a premium for NZ red meat in China and the Middle East.”

Morrison says though ‘premium’ consumers often choose to eat less red meat each week they are prepared to spend more to do so.