Beef + Lamb New Zealand earmarks seven key trends in new report
In its report, Shaping the future of New Zealand’s red meat sector, B+LNZ identified seven main trends that are impacting the industry and offered up recommendations for meat businesses to respond to the them.
B+LNZ commissioned Kantar Singapore to develop the report that will be used to inform its priorities in the coming years as well as explore with partners. The findings have already been fed into another major project that B+LNZ is working on with processing companies aimed at identifying potential new pathways to market.
The seven trends are:
- Premium diversified: an explosion of different forms and narratives around what premium means.
- My body my science: the growth in alternative models of health, and explosion of health data.
- New authorities of choice: how tech and algorithms are disintermediating traditional business to consumer relationships.
- Rediscovering connections: re-evaluating modernity and taking a greater interest in traditional practices.
- Stewards of trust: the ongoing desire for ‘total transparency’ in an increasingly low trust world.
- Re-channelling resources: re-thinking the path to market for our scarce resources.
- Embracing VUCA: how the new normal—volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity —will shape everything.
To help producers make the most of these trends, B+LNZ offered up the following calls to action:
- Exporting a food culture: continue the push towards value added food products tied to a unique New Zealand culture.
- Maximise co-products: ensure we get the most possible value from co-products both to drive profitability and hedge against a rise in meat alternatives.
- Reframing sustainability: taking charge of the sustainability debate by defining our story and telling it more effectively.
- Driving transparency beyond traceability: using the right tools to make sure our great products can evidence their “greatness”.
- Own new premium narratives: continue to develop New Zealand’s unique premium attributes and narrative and communicate it to consumers across global markets.
- Lead the health debate: firmly establish our health credentials and engage with our health “tribes”.
- Set up systems for collaboration and innovation: to unlock the potential of the sector.
B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor said: “We need to understand the future trends so that B+LNZ, farmers and the wider industry can be prepared and ensure that our strategy and investment decisions made today will position the industry for a successful future.
“What is pleasing is that some of the recommendations from the report are already being implemented and there are some exciting opportunities and projects in the pipeline.”
