NZ starved of food scientists

By DITA DE BONI

An acute shortage of food technologists looms unless drastic measures are taken to lure more high school graduates into the field.

Despite a perception that the domestic food industry is rapidly disappearing overseas, experts say large and small companies are crying out for graduates with sufficient food-related technical ability and commercial nous.

Food technologists develop ingredients and processes used by food manufacturers.

The food and beverage industry contributes about $10 billion to gross domestic product each year.

This figure is expected to grow to over $24 billion by the year 2002.

The industry already comprises about half of New Zealand's export earnings, employing roughly 183,000 people in jobs ranging from manufacturing and marketing of food to research and development scientists and engineers.

Around 5 per cent of jobs in the industry remain unfilled, mostly for qualified recruits with three to five years' experience.

Carol Filingeri and John May, human resources consultants at Auckland's Montford May agency, say they have noticed an increasing shortage of candidates to fill jobs available in all areas of food sciences.

"There's an acute shortage everywhere," said Mr May.

Graduates were highly sought after.

Montford May said that several employers specifically requested graduates with a qualification from Massey University.

This led them to view with concern a huge drop in enrolments in the 1999-2000 year at Food Technology and Food Engineering degrees, the leading provider of food technology graduates.

Enrolments for the Food Technology and Food Engineering qualifications have dropped from roughly 75 to 25 each over the past two years.

Restructuring at Massey in 1998 saw 25 departments that were responsible for liaising with seventh formers slashed to eight, with less money to spend on marketing their courses.

Professor Ray Winger, from Massey's Institute for Food Nutrition and Human Health, said the industry would not immediately notice the shortage of students entering the four-year degree courses, but more students needed to be recruited from high schools.

"We also have to correct the image perception that food technology is home science or cooking, which we hear from students all the time."

It is understood the university has recently agreed to restart fundraising and more actively promote the food technology courses to secondary schools in response to industry concerns.