I have been visiting ram clients recently and
had a fair number of discussions about these levies, the plight of our wool
industry, the threat of artificial meat and of course the weather!. On top of this I have taken the time to read
Beef and lamb’s (“BLNZ”) reports on alternative proteins, future of red meat
and environment strategy among others.
Well worth a read, but there is a lot to digest.
We have recently been advised that the increase
in levies “will be invested in accelerating four key programmes: the
international activation of the Taste Pure Nature origin brand and the Red Meat
Story, helping the sector lift its environmental performance and reputation,
telling the farmer story better, and strengthening B+LNZ’s capability to
address biosecurity risks.”
Two of these programs; those within in New Zealand’s
borders, I am sure they can affect change and indeed the environment strategy
report details how and what they want to do.
The reason being these are
internal matters within New Zealand borders, a small market, known
participants, almost all are aware of what the issues are and the need to address
them, the questions are simply what needs to be done, how and when.
However I somewhat skeptical regarding “the
international activation of the Taste Pure Nature origin brand and the Red Meat
Story” and I have read the levy proposal document and looked for much more
detail as to how they propose to utilise the proposed budget of $9
million. $9 million sounds like a lot
but in reality it’s a drop in the bucket and I just can’t see how BLNZ think it
will influence or change demand globally, without a lot of luck!!! I would assert that you need hundreds of
millions a year over many years to successfully increase market awareness of
New Zealand Red Meat globally and accordingly anything less is just a waste of
their time and our money.
Note in “telling the Farmer Story better” which from
my reading of BLNZ literature is to do with surveying public perceptions and
tracking over time if there any improvements: again if this is within New
Zealand, I would expect this to be worthwhile, but if not then it is simply
wasting more of our levy money because if you are simply peeing in the sea, then
realistically there is no change to measure.
Note I did qualify my view with the words “without a lot of luck”. The reason being in my view the only way
to gain traction worldwide with a very limited budget is to use social
media.
If BLNZ create a modern up to date trendy page that regularly
post relevant articles, videos, events and information relating to the clean
green environment of New Zealand, how we farm, scientific benefits of eating
red meat, carbon foot prints, negative articles regarding synthetic meat (it
may not be the panacea as some champion it to be) etc. I have read a number of articles (independent
or biased I don’t know) suggesting synthetic meats may not be better for the
environment. Similarly there must be
issues about the chemicals required to culture meat from stem cells.
Some articles will be funny, some horrendous, some
only informational, but given millennials, from my reading of BLNZ’s
literature, are the big players in the future of our industry and as I
understand the big users of social media, this is the forum you focus on and with a lot of luck, you just might get
some world penetration for $9 million. There
is a lot of information that could be posted on a Taste Pure Nature New Zealand
Facebook page. I would follow such a
page and share anything worth reading.
BLNZ needs to have someone dedicated to keep abreast
of all the topics, research etc. and posting them and hopefully some will go
viral. They might even have to
commission research.
Perhaps this is already BLNZ’s strategy and I just
couldn’t find it, but after visiting BLNZ Facebook page where it primarily has
various recipes on how to cook various meat dishes, I doubt it; as I won’t be
rushing back to visit that page or become a follower of it.
I am not a millennial, but I am on Facebook and I went
to watch the Taste Pure Nature video and thought I would share it on Facebook,
but couldn’t (not easily) and it should be.
Finally this brilliant Taste Pure Nature social media
page I am suggesting should also promote wool; wool is on the back of the lamb.
The virtues of wool being sustainable,
better for the environment then nylons, plastics etc. (a fairly easy argument
to win) ties in well with the theme of this page. Clearly crossbred wool is in the doldrums at
the moment and as a broker recently told me we need the global view on wool to
change, not simply a few people or countries, so we need luck to make this
happen
