6 APRIL 2017 NEWS SNIPS New Zealand exporters will soon be able to send highvalue chilled meat to China - potentially opening up trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars Dairy farmer Phil Musson’s ‘can do’ attitude has won him the annual Working with Nature environment award from North Canterbury Fish & Game. The Southern Hemisphere’s only population of the mysterious sockeye salmon has started its spawning run in the MacKenzie Country’s alpine rivers, providing the region with a new tourist attraction Christchurch’s pockets of awesome - the city’s trending places to meet, eat, drink and experience - are now featured in a new online resource GE Free NZ says public funds are being wasted as AgResearch trials GE ryegrass in the United States N E W S CHINESE SHOP ONLINE FOR NEW ZEALAND FOOD More than one-in-three Chinese online food consumers have purchased food from New Zealand and Australia, with baby food and products front-of-mind. New research from market intelligence agency Mintel reveals that New Zealand is a Chinese favourite when it comes to purchasing food for children online, with alcoholic drinks, beauty and personal care products also noteworthy. Mintel research director Laurel Gu says there is growth opportunity for brands in New Zealand to target Chinese consumers. “With Australia and New Zealand both having reputations for their strong focus on natural ingredients, food and drink companies could see great success by tapping into Chinese consumers’ healthy lifestyle, particularly within snacking occasions,” she says. “The key to grabbing Chinese consumers’ interest is convenience and customer service. Brands in Australia and New Zealand could consider selling their products via China’s leading domestic shopping websites, providing Chinese-language customer service, offering fast delivery services, as well as implementing the usage of third-party payment systems.” Nearly three-quarters of Chinese consumers have purchased import products in the past six months, and Gu says along with rapid urbanisation and higher disposable income, Chinese consumers are now among some of the world’s biggest spenders. “Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated while remaining influenced by the reputations of source countries,” Gu says. NZ AVOCADO WINS With an alarming 45% of all fruit and vegetables produced globally going to waste, it’s clear that addressing food waste is a priority. That’s why the team at Fresh Technologies (New Zealand’s largest avocado processor) are ensuring hard-earned fruit harvests are optimally processed and packaged – and they’ve won an award for it. In association with Sealed Air Care, the team have developed cold high pressure processing and packaging that achieves a chilled shelf life of 90 days – a huge 60-day extension over existing passive high barrier packaging technology. The technology has won an award at the 2017 Packaging and Processing Innovation and Design Awards developed by the Packaging Council of New Zealand, along with the Australian Institute of Packaging and the Australian Packaging & Processing Machinery Council. Avocado consumption is growing globally by 3% a year, and the fruit are New Zealand’s third largest fresh fruit export. PIVOTAL APPOINTMENTS: Sanitarium Health & Wellbeing New Zealand has appointed Rob Scoines as general manager New Zealand. Most recently general manager for logistics in Australia, the marathon runner and mountain climber has worked in a variety of roles including accounting, HR, logistics and manufacturing in locations across Australasia. Meanwhile, national intellectual property specialists James & Wells has appointed John Mansell as senior associate within its food, beverage and life science innovation teams. Mansell will focus on the Auckland patents team, with experience in the biotechnology, food technologies, genomics, metabolomics and proteomics fields. SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY A film co-directed and produced by Banks Peninsula organic farmer Taggart Siegel looking at the loss of a 12,000-year-old food legacy will be released in New Zealand for the first time this month. The award-winning documentary at the Nashville Film Festival tells the story of seeds, worshipped and treasured since the dawn of humankind, but fast disappearing from our world. Siegel says in the past century, 94% of seed varieties have disappeared and, as biotech chemical companies control the majority, farmers, scientists, lawyers and indigenous seed keepers are fighting a ‘David and Goliath’ battle to defend the future of our food. “In a harrowing and heartening story, these reluctant heroes rekindle a lost connection to our most treasured resource and revive a culture connected to seeds,” he says.
FT-Apr17-eMag
To see the actual publication please follow the link above