With the origin branding initiative, Taste Pure Nature, to be shifted back to the meat exporters, there are questions about whether the momentum will be sustained, or just in some markets

The recent announcement by Beef + Lamb NZ and the Meat Industry Association signalling the transfer of responsibility for the Taste Pure Nature programme to meat exporters suggests there are several reasons for the change. It is four years since the initiative was first introduced to farmers as a desirable way to promote the sustainability of New Zealand grass-fed beef and lamb to target groups of international consumers. BLNZ had to take leadership of what was a generic programme because meat exporters were unenthusiastic about putting money into generic promotion as distinct from their own company brands.

BLNZ says it is really pleased with the success of the programme in demonstrating the value of country of origin branding and now feels the time is right to hand over campaign leadership to the meat exporters. Although the farmer organisation will continue to invest money, this change of emphasis is consistent with its intention to concentrate its efforts behind the farm gate in line with the wishes of the levy payers. Meanwhile MIA members want greater emphasis placed on enhancing New Zealand’s country of origin reputation.

Apart from the transfer of leadership to the MIA the biggest change under the new structure is the funding arrangement whereby MIA and BLNZ will each inject $2 million over three years, while there are discussions with MPI about obtaining matching government support. China, probably Shanghai, will be the main focus of the programme which means work in the Californian market will effectively cease, at least for the time being. However B+LNZ chair Kate Acland believes the work undertaken there already has positioned exporters really well to continue building the profile for New Zealand’s sustainable grass-fed beef and lamb.

SFF’s Chief Customer Officer Dave Courtney sees the value of a focused, well-resourced country of origin programme in a crowded marketplace which other exporting countries such as the United States, Ireland and Australia have proved delivers cut-through with both direct customers and consumers. He agrees "Silver Fern Farms sees merit in working and investing in collaboration with other New Zealand exporters to build a visible platform of Country of Origin recognition in China, sharing the unique story of our farming systems to generate consistent demand and stable returns for suppliers.” He sees it as a sensible way to achieve some critical scale that will help position New Zealand red meat as a premium brand in the market.

Nathan Guy, MIA chair, cites the heavy promotional presence of competing countries’ red meat industries at major food fairs in China while New Zealand has had nothing comparable. He confirms all MIA Council members (i.e. chief executives of meat exporters) voted overwhelmingly to take over responsibility for TPN as a country of origin programme over and above individual company brands.

The fact the first three years will be funded out of existing funding streams, rather than by individual company contributions, probably made it an easier sell. An extension of the programme beyond the third year may be more difficult and will depend on several factors: the measured effectiveness of the campaign, continued support from MPI and BLNZ, and the level of exporter profitability at the time.

Generic promotion of red meat has traditionally been taken on by Beef + Lamb and its predecessors, notably in the form of the New Zealand lamb rosette in the UK which dated from 1923. In the 1960s the Meat Board took responsibility for marketing and price setting for lamb, established offices in several overseas countries and in 1982 took over buying and selling of all sheepmeat for a time. As the relationship with UK and EU retail chains evolved and chilled lamb quota increased from a very low base through the 1990s, the residual awareness of the lamb rosette supported sales and value growth, but this has lessened over time.

Beef marketing received much less attention over the years because, after Britain joined the EU, New Zealand no longer enjoyed guaranteed beef access to the UK and Europe and the majority of sales to North America was in the form of grinding beef for blending into hamburgers. Hot-boning, cheaper than cold-boning essential for prime beef, became more prevalent and prime beef which was viewed unfavourably in comparison with grain-fed product in many markets declined.

The country of origin partnership between BLNZ and meat exporters has been a long time in the making because of the farmer representative predecessor organisation’s long-held control of sales and marketing in addition to the processing companies’ lack of profitability. Until the 1990s meat plants were inefficient and heavily unionised, built to process large volumes of subsidised lamb, mutton and cull dairy cows.

Prime cattle were a relatively small part of the throughput, while traditional processors continued to cold bone prime for the domestic market, South and East Asia and Canada. ANZCO evolved out of the Meat Board’s Japanese and Korean offices and it is no surprise that company has emerged as the most successful New Zealand exporter to those markets, underpinned by its grain finishing 5 Star beef feedlot to produce marbled beef much sought after in Japan. But until TPN there has been no concerted campaign to promote New Zealand grass-fed prime beef.

It isn’t obvious to me how the successor to TPN under MIA leadership will be structured. Guy assures me it will have a very strong commercial focus under the leadership of the exporters’ marketing managers. This does not explain who will actually do the work, as the MIA is not a marketing operation with the requisite skills, nor will individual exporters have spare experts in social media and online promotion to handle a generic campaign.

Perhaps the domestic marketing operation Beef + Lamb New Zealand (Inc), not to be confused with the farmer organisation Beef + Lamb New Zealand, would be the logical place for this programme to be located, since its main responsibility is to develop programmes for the promotion of New Zealand beef and lamb. It has also done a very good job and has the right set of skills. Watch this space!

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