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International consumers who buy New Zealand’s products are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their lifestyles.
At the same time, retailers and the food and beverage industry – particularly in the UK and Europe – are looking to provide consumers with information to differentiate certain products, brands or even retail chains, on the basis of sustainability and environmental impact. These trends appear to be emerging in other markets, including North America and parts of Asia.
The New Zealand Government is working closely with exporters to keep ahead of these trends and developments.
This includes working with key industries to measure, manage and reduce their environmental (including greenhouse gas or carbon) ‘footprint’, as well as leveraging opportunities in international markets for New Zealand companies. It also includes monitoring the emergence of a range of environmental and carbon labelling schemes, particularly from retail chains in Europe.
In the case of food, domestic and international work on carbon footprinting now acknowledges that the basic ‘food miles’ argument – that is, the further food has to travel before it reaches the plate the worse it is for the environment – is flawed due to its narrow focus on just one step in the cycle of production and processing, distribution, and consumption of the food.
Research into the environmental impact of food now seeks to improve understanding of the importance of the greenhouse gases embedded across the entire life cycle of a product, from farm to fork. It is also expanding to consider other environmental impacts of food production (e.g. on water resources or from pesticide usage).
There are a number of projects under way within New Zealand aimed at understanding and reducing environmental footprints, and understanding and capitalising on international trends and developments towards sustainability. These include:
Convened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Sustainable Food Exports Group is a unique forum for industry and officials to share information on sustainability trends and developments in offshore markets and to discuss the implications and opportunities for New Zealand food and beverage exports. A similar group exists in London, coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise publish quarterly market intelligence reports on sustainability issues in key export markets for the food and beverage sector.
NZTE also provides assistance to business on sustainability issues including research, case studies and links to other resources.
The New Zealand Greenhouse Gas Footprinting Strategy for the Land-Based Primary Sectors is a partnership approach (involving government, industry and research providers) to assist the New Zealand primary sector to respond to increasing international attention on the environmental impacts of production and consumption. It focuses on building capability domestically to measure and manage environmental performance, as well as drive efficiency across supply chains.
The Strategy includes work in three main areas: International engagement to contribute to development of international standards, Sector-led initiatives to establish GHG footprints for primary sector supply chains and Building capability in the primary sector to measure and monitor environmental and business performance across supply chains.
The Ministry of Economic Development is working on a series of environmental initiatives aimed at helping New Zealand businesses to measure and manage their environmental performance, including:
A web-based Directory of ecolabels (external link to Ministry of Economic Development) has already been launched, which allows users to locate and compare information about ecolabels of significance to New Zealand businesses.
