Veteran industry leader Rob Hewett says despite the volatile global market and on-farm challenges, the strategy needed to succeed as a food exporter has never been clearer.
Hewett, who chairs Farmlands, Silver Fern Farms Ltd and Wool Works, was a speaker at this week’s Institute of Directors leadership conference.
He told the Farmers Weekly In Focus podcast that the boardroom focus was to cut through the noise and clearly understand what customers and consumers want.
“If we don’t understand those customers and absolutely what drives them to buy your product, then we’re just in the wind,” he said.
“And quite frankly we don’t need that lack of clarity, because JBS or other big commodity players globally will absolutely cut your lunch on price, because if you don’t understand what that those requirements are, price is the only other lever you’ve got.”
While some farmers bristled at adding more paperwork to their busy lives, Hewett said transparency and traceability are vital if we are to access the high-value consumers that will increase farmgate returns.
Hewett has calculated that his own farm could feed about 5000 people if they ate three meals of red meat a fortnight. Consumers could walk right past his offerings, though, if all the pieces of the puzzle weren’t in place.
“What our customers are asking for is proof, so we need to get accredited, because that’s a trust mark that gives them the confidence to continue to pay that $100 [in a restaurant]. The cost of production on pastoral livestock is significant, and we need those customers.”
While red meat returns, especially for lamb, are low right now, Hewett is upbeat about the future of the industry.
“If all food demand was the same, if there was no differentiation opportunity, then that’s like all of us driving Toyotas. We’d all drive the same car, because all cars do the same job.
“And quite patently there are Mercedes drivers and Audi drivers and Ferrari drivers out there and they prefer those cars, and they want to buy those cars. “It’s the same with New Zealand products. Our produce is those Ferraris and Mercedes and Audis. When you look at the global protein market, and that’s true whether it’s Fonterra or Sliver Fern Farms or our apples or our wine, it’s all the same positioning.
“The worst situation we could get into as a country is we were selling that Ferrari for a Toyota Corolla price. And often in the past, that’s where we’ve been – that’s just rubbish.”
