After ranting on about the need for a more collaborative approach to the marketing of NZ meat exports it is refreshing to be told that our marketing efforts are streets ahead of the Australians.
I am in Australia for a couple of weeks and quickly became aware of the impact of extremely dry conditions, a high dollar and the drop in export market prices from the heady levels recorded last year, which was having a devestating effect, both in terms of morale and financial returns rural Australia.
But the difference was the advice from a prominent Aussie beef and sheep farmer that Kiwis were doing so much better than the Aussies; in particular the bilateral trade agreements easing access into Asia, and our marketing organisation.
The comment rgarding marketing was a bit of a surprise to me and I immediately countered with the view that our meat was generally sold rather than marketed. However the main focus of the comment on our marketing was related to the impact of Fonterra in intenational markets, but then the operations of the Lamb Company in North America were also touched upon.
A natural reaction would be to bask in the glow of these laudatory comments, but I had to remind my host that we were a long way from an efficient marketing operation for the majority of our sheep and beef markets.
As I am biassed I advised that sorting out the marketing should be the priority for the NZ meat industry and could be achieved given that the collaborative models are already available. Any ideas of improving collaboration in the procurement and processing sector, whether it be by mergers or even Tradeable Killing Rights or any other consultants’ proposal, would be a hard commercial slog to ovecome the ownership and cultural differences.
Still, it is encouraging to think that the Aussies consider are better than them at something.
26 Apr
WorkinWords 