The value of the industry working collaboratively was highlighted in a presentation by The Alliance Group’s General Manager of Sales, Shane Kingston, at Beef + lamb New Zealand’ Annual Meeting last week.
Shane outlined the dynamics occurring in this two of this country’s main export markets, namely China and North America and the importance of collectively building trust, loyalty and NZ’s reputation in order to extract the best possible returns from our markets.
Underpinning this reputation is the verification of good farming practices through the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP).
“We need to realise the full potential of NZFAP and NZFAP Plus and use them to the best of our ability to try and get the best possible return from our markets.”
Looking at consumer behaviour, Shane says 67 per cent of the growth in global beef consumption is being driven by China and while the growth in white meat consumption is growing three times faster than beef consumption, there is significant growth in grass-fed beef sales, albeit from a low base.
He says 87 per cent of consumers want to know what their food contains and 66 per cent of consumers will pay attention to nutritional benefits when purchasing food or drink. Sixty percent of consumers are influenced by the perceived trustworthiness of food producers.
This means that as a country, NZ needs to extend its red meat message to include health and nutrition while delivering a strong taste experience.
“We need to create an authentic emotional connection and strengthen our animal welfare, environmental and ethics position.”
Shane says The Alliance Group has been working in China and North America alongside Silver Fern Farms, ANZCO Foods and B+LNZ to promote NZ red meat under the Taste Pure Nature brand.
One North American Campaign in the retail giant Sam’s Club resulted in an increase in retail sales by 100.9 per cent over a four-week period over and above the historic average and 76.2 per cent of those purchases were to new customers. During the campaign period, 9.2 million shoppers visited Sam’s Club highlighting the market potential.
He stressed the need for the industry to better understand its consumers and for processors and farmers to invest more in marketing across the board in order to realise this potential.
To view Shane’s presentation go to https://youtu.be/gnfpqnFDsWM