KEY POINTS:
New Zealand sheep farmers will be the face of a new lamb marketing push by PPCS.
In a first for New Zealand, images and contact details of the farmers who supply lamb to selected supermarkets in Britain will appear on the product's packaging.
PPCS chief executive Keith Cooper
said the move was in response to requests by retailers and consumers, but it would also create a point of difference by utilising "the New Zealand story" as a marketing feature and to command a premium price.
"Several top-end supermarkets want to give grower details to consumers such as where they are from and [give] comfort with the source of products in terms of the country of origin, the environment in which it [the product] has been raised and, potentially, how it has been raised. It's the whole story behind the product."
The first consignment carrying producers' images and names has arrived in selected Marks and Spencer supermarkets in the United Kingdom, and PPCS group marketing manager Glenn Tyrrell said it was likely other affluent markets would request similar packaging.
The format of the packaging could vary from a photograph of the farmer to simply carrying a name, serial number and web address where details about the farmer and farm from which the meat came could be accessed.
Cooper said this was part of a company strategy to link the farmers with consumers, to differentiate New Zealand lamb from other suppliers', and use New Zealand to tell consumers a positive story about where and how the lamb was grown and produced.
The present marketing system identified New Zealand-produced lamb, he said, but did not promote positive aspects of the environment.
"We have a strategy of marketing New Zealand, what we do and how we deliver it, versus the New Zealand lamb stamp-of-origin we have now."
PPCS is also promoting 300g-500g ready-served portions with recipe suggestions to target modern consumers along with the New Zealand branding.
Cooper said New Zealand needed to reduce its reliance on the UK leg market as fewer people were buying leg roasts.
While the 1kg and 2kg leg roasts were still a key product, Tyrrell said new consumers shopped with a basket not a trolley, bought meal-size meat portions and decided in seconds what they were going to buy, so packaging had to be attractive and eye- catching.
Later this year PPCS will change its name to Silver Fern Farms.
- OTAGO DAILY TIMES