M Y S AY IT’S TIME TO PULL TOGETHER There’s a saying that the only things certain in life are death and taxes. Increasingly as a sheep and beef sector in New Zealand, another consideration we face is volatility. Volatility impacting on returns for our products and fluctuating exchange rates is not something we can ever minimise. So we must learn to manage volatility, and we can do that by building resilient businesses. It’s about having more reserves. Perhaps here in New Zealand we need to start adopting the philosophy a lot of Australian dryland farmers do, where they will farm for one good year in ten, a few average years and a few very poor years. Increasingly those New Zealand farm businesses with sufficient reserves will more resiliently ride through the troughs and capitalise on the good years. There has been quite a lot of debate and frustration over the past few years around the industry structure and at times poor returns for farmers. Regrettably, the wide-ranging views which were publically aired and debated through rural media have placed a cloud over the red meat sector. Ironically, the more we focus on things the larger they become, and so that is why last month at our annual meeting in Paihia, I called on our sector to pull together and focus not on our weaknesses, but rather our strengths and areas of excellence. Where we do have to improve, it is important that we speak to the solution rather than the problem. If we continue to focus on the problems, they will consume us. Yet a solution-focused perspective is incredibly empowering. People are always attracted to vision not problems, and New Zealand’s red meat sector is full of opportunity. Just last year for example we achieved more than $9 billion in domestic and export revenue…a new record. While a problem is low returns for lamb, the solution is demand creation. One of the areas Beef + Lamb NZ can have influence is through our market development investment. As an organisation, we have spent a lot of time re-examining our role in this area alongside meat companies, and an independent review of this activity has highlighted that farmers through B+LNZ do have a role to play – but not in the traditional geographic investment that we have been involved with in the past. James Parsons Through our discussions with farmers and meat companies it has become increasingly clear that rather than focusing on our traditional market activity - the UK and Europe for sheepmeat and North Asia for beef - we should be focused more on where the opportunities lie. That could be more around creating, proving and capturing the value of the New Zealand red meat story and promoting it with discerning consumers who see value in experiencing a slice of New Zealand when they consume our products. Farmers take intense pride in what they produce and are wanting their story to be told. It’s a story that articulates their care and devotion -their values as farming families, working and caring for the land and their animals. If this can be done in a coordinated fashion between farmers and the meat industry then farmers, processors, rural communities and ultimately the wider New Zealand public will be more prosperous as a result. James Parsons is the chairman of Beef+Lamb New Zealand. www.foodtechnology.co.nz 35
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