Executive summary
A partnership approach involves the pooling of resources, competencies, capacity and expertise, thereby achieving outcomes that add value to what each party could achieve by acting alone (Warner & Sullivan, 2004). New Zealand’s food and fibre sector benefits when participants work together to solve its challenges and bring value to the farm gate.
The purpose of this report is to evaluate what value working together brings to farmers and growers and the different types of potential value that can returned to the farm gate through the lens of industry partnerships. The objectives of the study were to address two primary questions.
- What are the elements of a successful partnership?
- What value can partnerships bring to the farm gate?
The methodology comprises a narrative literature review of existing works. This provided a base knowledge for conducting eight semi-structured interviews with a mixture of rural professionals, farmers, and growers. The themes identified from the literature review and interviews were then collated into a thematic analysis.
The results of this analysis showed that in order to return value, a partnership must be successful. Elements identified as contributing towards the success of a partnership we categorised using Sinek’s (2009) Golden Circle model of why, how and what. Purpose sat core of the model with trust, goalsetting, equity, management and people making the middle layer of how. Finally, structures and contracts were identified as the product of purpose, the what.
It was established that partnerships can bring social, productivity and profitability benefits to the farm gate. Productivity, which is often qualitative, typically leads to improved profitability over the long term. Profitability was found to be an instant benefit to the farm gate and was easily communicated and measured. Social value is often referenced within developing countries and was not widely discussed within interviews.
Recommendations for the food and fibre industry are:
- Participants within the food and fibre sector should view working with others as an opportunity to create greater value than what one can achieve by working alone.
- Initiatives that involve working with other parties should be formed and communicated from the inside out, starting with purpose.
- Communicating effectively and engaging farmers and growers is fundamental to creating value at the farm gate, communication should be tailored to a diverse audience.
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