This august group has been tucked away at a ‘boot camp’ at Stanford University, near San Francisco. They represent the dairy, meat, seafood, horticulture and viticulture sectors.
No ‘industry good’ organisations are there but it does include the chief executives of MPI and NZ Trade and Enterprise.
The private-sector initiative cost about $500,000, mostly paid by the companies themselves, but including a grant of $100,000 from Agmart.
The ‘champion’ of the venture is New Zealand Merino chief executive John Brackenridge.
He told Rural News before leaving that the group includes small and medium enterprises – entrepreneurial companies, including some large ones. About 80% of New Zealand’s food exports are represented.
“The purpose of the boot camp is to work out where we can collaborate, how we can unlock value and how we can be transformational but work within the New Zealand primary sector.
“We’re not seeing this as a publicity thing; we’re far more interested in talking about things we can do after we’ve had the discussion. We then want to decide what we can do and when we are going to implement it.”
Brackenridge says they chose Stanford because it is recognised as the premier business school in the US. “It’s centred in Silicon Valley and… a lot around that ‘eco-system’… could have direct application within New Zealand… in terms of design and understanding collaboration.”
Primary Industry Minister David Carter has praised the boot camp initiative as an excellent opportunity for some of the most forward-thinking primary sector companies to collaborate. “It’s not often we get a powerful group like this around the table and I’m confident of a positive outcome.”
