Editorial: Is buying NZ produce important?

We have always been urged to buy local produce. Photo/Thinkstock

Walking the aisles of our supermarket's booze section I tend to avoid the Australian, South African and Chilean wine.

My enthusiasm's curbed by the weight of the bottles multiplied by the energy it takes to ship them from the countries above (4162km, 11,574km and 9146km respectively), only for them to sit next to, and compare poorly with, our own plonk.

Last week I refused to buy limes at a Hastings supermarket after noticing they were labelled "Product of USA". Then, just days later, New Zealand food and beverage makers cried foul when Australian supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths competed to be the "most Australian" company by snubbing New Zealand tenders.

Kiwis were urged to boycott said Aussie chains.

It's a strange impasse.

For as long as I can remember we have been motivated to buy locally - yet we cry foul when Australians launch the same parochial campaign on their own turf.

Two years ago in Napier, John Key delivered these lines during an address: "New Zealand is never going to get wealthy selling things to each other. There are 4.5 million of us and that is not enough. We have to sell more to the world than we buy from the world."

The buy-local mantra gets a little complex if you are an export-driven economy.

Maybe I should adhere to the Prime Minister's "outward looking" advice. Maybe my wine-buying habits are too insular.

Yet I'm no economist. My choice in wine is driven primarily by the palate.