Future NZ: The world's smart food capital

New Zealand is in a strong position to become an international hub for agricultural education, training and technology. Claire Massey reports

In 2050 the milk 'crisis' of 2013 may well be remembered as a turning point in New Zealand's approach to agribusiness. With the benefit of almost 40 years' hindsight the event could become as important a milestone as the first shipment of frozen meat from New Zealand to Britain in 1882.

We will hopefully see it as a coming-of-age year when we realised that New Zealand's core advantage in agribusiness was intellectual property, a year when we collectively decided to pursue the goal of making New Zealand the smart food capital of the world.

So, how will we get there? As the saying goes, "never waste a good crisis". Now the story of Fonterra's botulism scare is fading from the daily news bulletins, the real work must begin. Industry leaders, government and the country's science providers need to get together to develop a blueprint for the future.

This process should engage the whole country in an open dialogue. This year's crisis spilled over into many other sectors - tourism being the prime example - and it highlighted the fact that every one of the approximately half million New Zealand enterprises has a role to play in building the country's reputation.

The next step is to focus on the whole value chain. We have traditionally focused on industries (dairy, meat, wool) or sectors (pipfruit, seafood) but, to gain most value, we need to build strength in all components of the chain - traceability, resource management, processing, packaging, distribution, retailing, marketing, branding, exporting, policy, finance, technology, computing, management, research and development.

We must also look for smart business models. One of our core national values is independence, but the demands of the future will require us to partner with those who have skills or resources we lack in a process of open innovation.

The problems facing the world today (food supply, poverty, disease, climate change) are complex. They require integrated responses, and we need to harness all the resources (including tikanga M?ori) available to us.

New Zealand also needs to build a seamless science system. We already have excellent science and education systems where individuals and groups are closely connected, but we can do better. Our goal must be to provide easy access for firms, with scientists working across institutional boundaries (in New Zealand and around the world) and alongside industry as standard practice.

We must then make 'best practice' the new norm. Our farmers and producers have always been world leaders, and we need to retain this position and make it the norm across the whole economy for manufacturers and service providers alike.

We have clear capability in producing food, we have a business infrastructure that is consistently rated as amongst the best in the world, and a farming community that is highly educated and has the capacity to integrate the newest technology into their farming operations.

This puts New Zealand in a strong position to export education, training and technology in agricultural production. There is no reason New Zealand should not become a leader in knowledge distribution, an international hub for agricultural know-how.

The reality is that this blueprint does not yet exist in any formal sense - but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be written. Wherever conversations about New Zealand's future occur, these same ideas are kicked around: How do we work better together? How do we ensure that our firms have access to the best science and the best infrastructure?

It is only by ensuring our firms do what they do best - be enterprising and take the best of New Zealand to the world - that we can secure our economic future as the world's smart food capital.

Professor Claire Massey is Massey University's Director of Agrifood Business.