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The carbon credit currency

Carbon credits
Carbon credits

By Sam Mander, Environmental Consultant, The AgriBusiness Group and 2022 Kellogg Scholar.

The article is reprinted from the Real Estate Magazine, with permission from the publisher The Real Estate Institute of New Zealand.

Indigenous forest land and the carbon sequestration opportunity for New Zealand landowners always seems to be downplayed — deemed too expensive, too hard, or inferior compared to exotic forests.

Sam Mander, Environmental Consultant at The AgriBusiness Group, debunks this myth and provides an understanding of how to identify the indigenous carbon opportunity.

Kanuka, manuka, regenerating native vegetation or planted native restoration sites hold a significant opportunity for carbon sequestration. But fundamentally, where the opportunity really lies in this space is where a natural seed source is present.

Land with naturally regenerating indigenous forest requires no capital input, eliminating the usual barriers of expensive planting regimes and delicate forest management.  

We don’t want to discourage the planting of new native areas, particularly around areas of ecological significance, but to capitalise on the low hanging fruit, landowners must take advantage of existing native seed stocks and develop these areas to accelerate the growth of regenerating New Zealand’s indigenous landscape.  

Determining eligible indigenous forest land

Indigenous forest areas are eligible to enter the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) if they meet the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) forest land definition. 

What is carbon sequestration?

Carbon sequestration is the process by which carbon dioxide is absorbed during photosynthesis, and is stored as carbon in biomass (trunks, branches, foliage, and roots). Source: nzfoa.org.nz 

Sam Mandes_Carbon Credit Currency

MPI’s forest land definition states that forests must: 

  • Reach at least one hectare in area 
  • Reach at least 30 metres average width 
  • Have species that can grow five metres high 
  • Have the potential to reach 30% canopy cover
  • Meet the above as of 1 January 1990 or after 
  • Have met all of the above as of 1 January 1990. 


If a landowner has property that has manuka, kanuka, mixed podocarps, or areas they are thinking of planting native species (including in riparian zones — the interface between land and a river or stream) carbon credits can be earned if the areas meet the forest land definition. 
 
One carbon credit is equivalent to one tonne of carbon sequestered; therefore, the tonnes of carbon sequestered by the forest each year are the total number of annual carbon credits available.

Tonnes of carbon are calculated on a per hectare basis, and the value of one tonne is equal to the current carbon price ($76/NZU/tonne). 
 
You’re typically looking for a natural seed source present with conditions that favour natural dispersion, growth and succession. Any native species can be included if it has the potential to reach five metres in height at maturity. 
 
The most common example of opportunity is regenerating kanuka and manuka forest land areas.  
 
To earn carbon credits, landowners need to electronically map the land to certain standards and capture aerial imagery to prove the forest area meets the forest land definition. 

The value of credits a landowner can receive and for how long they will receive them largely depends on the species growing on the land.

The MPI carbon lookup tables determine that indigenous forests can earn carbon credits from sequestration in the first 50 years of growth. 

How to assess the native forest area

This can be a difficult process for landowners; fortunately, professional forestry companies and environmental consultants like myself have developed methods for assessing forest land definition and providing the result of the assessment to MPI for a successful ETS application. 

“The value of credits a landowner can receive and length of time they will receive them largely depends on the species growing on the land.” 

Depending on the forest scenario, we use a combination of ground vegetation sampling, plotting, and integrated drone imagery to determine and prove this. In most cases, this is where an expert may need to be involved. 

A recent example is a property with an indigenous natural seed source. An assessment found it had 35 hectares of post-1989 indigenous forest land that had regenerated since 1990, with a forest age of approximately 17 years.

Forest species were predominantly kanuka, manuka, among other mixed podocarps. Carbon credits can be claimed for the remaining 33 years of carbon sequestration. 

Economically speaking, at the current carbon price, this equated to an average annual cash flow of $16,000, or cumulatively, $539,000. In summary, the opportunity to earn carbon credits for indigenous forest land is significant, particularly where a natural seed source is present.

The property mentioned above is among many that we have worked on which provides a great example of the type of property that is common around rural New Zealand and one that holds value from indigenous carbon sequestration. 

Planting trees to offset carbon isn’t a silver bullet against climate change.

However, carbon credits allow landowners to balance the scales for those unavoidable emissions on the path to reduction and has potential to generate financial benefits for those who wish to engage in these sustainable practices.

Download Sam’s report Carbon Sequestration Potential.

How Resilient Farmers Thrive In The Face Of Adversity

Resilient Farmers_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson
Resilient Farmers_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson

By Jack Cocks and Joanne R. Stevenson.

Article is reprinted from The Journal with permission from the publisher, NZ Institute of Primary Industry Management

Farmers face adversity from multiple sources and additional challenges to other sectors of society. To date, there does not appear to be a simple high-level resilience-focused model for how farmers can be more resilient ‘personally’.

This article, which is the result of a Kellogg Rural Leadership Study on ‘How Resilient Farmers Thrive in the Face of Adversity‘, is a first step towards developing that model.

The study found there were three key strategies that facilitated farmer resilience – purpose, connection and well-being.

Adversity affects farmers from multiple sources

Like all members of society, farmers face adversity in a range of forms from health crises to financial volatility, family challenges and personal loss. Due to the nature of their business, however, farmers are more vulnerable than those in other industries to climate challenges and global market shifts. They are also often toiling at the coalface of legislative changes and can have less access to appropriate support services. 

More than other industries farmers have strong identity ties to their land and business, meaning that disruptions to the farm are de facto disruptions to the farming family. They also typically live at their place of work.

The current global environment (autumn 2022) – experiencing climate, a global pandemic and a war in Eastern Europe – highlights the dynamism, volatility and interconnected global marketplace in which New Zealand farmers operate. 

Developing strategies to recover quickly from adversity, or ‘building resilience’, is essential to achieving long-term success in farming. While there are a number of tools and resources available that address social-emotional resilience, there does not appear to be a simple, high-level resilience-focused model developed specifically for farmers.

Such a model could be used by farmers when facing adversity to ask themselves, ‘Are we implementing the key strategies and techniques (both as an individual and as a team of individuals) that we need to be resilient in the face of this adversity?’ 

More than other industries farmers have strong identity ties to their land and business, meaning that disruptions to the farm are de facto disruptions to the farming family.

Context

The lead author, Jack Cocks, an Otago high country farmer, experienced adversity from a life-threatening brain injury which saw him in a coma, suffer a cardiac arrest, a seizure and a pulmonary oedema.

On day one in hospital Jack’s family was given a prognosis that their husband, dad and son would likely be dead today. The best case scenario was that he would survive but spend the rest of his life in an institution.

He obviously did survive, and the following six years saw him undergo 15 major surgeries and spend eight months in hospital re-learning to talk, and several times re-learning to walk. 

Through this experience and recovery Jack has been told that he is a resilient character. He has been asked to give several talks to farmers on his experience and how he developed resilience through adversity.

He found that giving these talks was a humbling and surprising experience for the feedback received.

However, the presentations were based on just one farmer’s thoughts and he had two questions he could not answer from them: 

  • The adversity he had faced, while bad, was it any worse than what many people face? 
  • Were his ideas on resilience applicable to all farmers, or were they just the ideas of one farmer who had faced some adversity? 

Five areas of adversity

The five areas of adversity and a brief synopsis of each case are given below: 

Health

Doug, who farms on the East Coast, faced severe adversity in the form of depression. This was primarily brought about through farming in what became an eight-year drought.

Natural disasters, climate and weather

Andy, who farms in Canterbury, has farmed through a succession of major weather events, snowfalls and droughts. He has a great deal of knowledge about how to farm through adversity.

Financial

Kevin and Jody, who farm in Otago, have faced a very high amount of adversity in their lives starting from before they emigrated to New Zealand.

Their major adversity in this country has been financial, in the form of a very low dairy payout in their first two seasons as 50:50 sharemilkers. 

Family 

Brent and Jo, who farm in Southland, experienced a number of challenges to farm succession early in their farming career. Communication and a desire to split assets evenly among all children, farming and non-farming, were the major challenges.

They have since done everything right to complete succession with Brent’s siblings and are an example for how farm succession can successfully be completed with their own children. 

Personal loss 

Melissa lost her husband to cancer and has since done tremendous good for her community. 

It would be impossible and unfair to compare each of these stories. The level of adversity and the situations they have faced are so different that any of them would have responded differently, perhaps better, perhaps worse.

The choice of case study participants provides representation of the common sources of adversity farmers in New Zealand face and a cross-section of the likelihood of adversity from the ‘wow, that is incredible’, to ‘yes, our neighbours have been in that situation – I’ve seen it many times.’

The most remarkable story of resilience is notable for the breadth of the sources of adversity and the severity of the situation they faced.

One of the case studies is therefore an important reminder of the possibility of compounding disruptions, where adverse events seem to stack up, showing the way that resilience can be repeatedly eroded and then built back up.

Jack was able to identify some of the case study participants because they have shared their stories publicly, mobilising the power of story-telling to process their own adverse event and improve the lives of others by sharing their message.

Interviewing and examining their stories collectively revealed common themes that underpinned this diverse range of experiences. 

Resilience strategies and the ‘Resilience Triangle’

Analysing the interviews revealed the common resilience strategies that the five case study participants knowingly or unknowingly put in place in their lives.

These strategies are captured in the form of a three-level triangle, the ‘Resilience Triangle’: 

Purpose 

This is the reason we are doing what we’re doing; the ‘direction’ of the triangle, the ‘why’. 

Connection 

This is the middle of the triangle; the ‘glue’ that holds it together, or the ‘who’. This is keeping connected with other people – friends, family, farming networks and local communities.

These connections are the people in our lives who buoy us up and encourage us to achieve, to rise above, and to have courage when going through adversity. 

Well-being 

This is the base of the triangle. It is, ‘what do I need in my life to be well’ or to be happy and content? It is the ‘foundation’ for resilience, the ‘what’. 

Participants in the study placed different weighting and had different consciousness of the use of these strategies, but they are common across all five cases.

Key to the effectiveness of these resilience building strategies is the combinations of approaches across the three levels and how the participants have implemented the strategies in their lives. 

For each of these strategies there were four ‘enabling techniques’ below each one that the farmers used to enable resilience at each level.

There are different enablers that underpin their sense of purpose, connection and well-being. We could identify enablers that, when missing, eroded resilience at different levels of the triangle. 

The resilience triangle_Jack Cocks_Joanne R. Stevenson

The lead author cites that after brain injury induced balance issues, having sufficient stability to be able to dress standing up was a cause for celebration after having to sit on the bed to do this for so long. Enjoying the little things such as seasonal foods, a sunrise, or the first birdsong in the early spring were all cited as enablers of well-being.

Conclusions

This study was concerned with developing a theory for how resilient farmers thrive in the face of adversity. It found that the case study participants employed three strategies in their lives to be resilient: 

  • they lived with ‘purpose’ in that they had a clear understanding of ‘why’ they were doing what they were doing 
  • they were very good at keeping ‘connected’ with those people around them who would and could help them through periods of adversity 
  • they also understood what they needed to do to keep ‘well’ – what they needed in their lives to be happy and content. 

Also, for each of these three strategies there were four enabling techniques which these farmers employed to facilitate each strategy. 

Rural professionals supporting our farmers need a clear understanding of not only the causes of adversity, but some of the strategies and techniques they can use to be resilient. 

The future global environment in which New Zealand farmers operate will face significant volatility, turmoil and potentially subsequent adversity. 

Rural professionals supporting our farmers need a clear understanding of not only the causes of adversity, but some of the strategies and techniques they can use to be resilient. We believe this study is a first step in crystallising how resilient farmers thrive in the face of adversity.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme for developing and delivering such an excellent programme. Also, to the five case study participants who have openly shared their stories of adversity and resilience, as they are remarkable and inspirational farmers. 

Jack Cocks is a sheep and beef farmer in the Otago high country and previously a partner in AbacusBio, a Dunedin agribusiness and science consultancy. Dr Joanne R. Stevenson is a Principal Consultant with Resilient Organisations Ltd and farms in partnership with her husband on a North Canterbury sheep and beef property. 

Corresponding author: jackcnz@icloud.com 

Wahine toa, Wahine ahu matua.

Sharleen Temara Kellogg report image
Sharleen Temara Kellogg report image

Executive summary

“ Whaia te iti kahurangi ki te tuohu koe me he maunga teitei, ki nga whetu rawa”

__

“Seek the treasure that you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain, let it be beyond the stars”.

This whakataukī is about perseverance and endurance. Refusing to let obstacles get in your way while striving to reach your goals.

This research paper looks at the need for women in leadership, the need for te ao Maori and tikanga Maori in the workplace, the current resistance to change and posits how this might change.

Traditionally and historically the leadership role has been the domain of men in Maori and mainstream organisations. Progress is happening, glacial as it feels at times.

Although there has been little research into gender bias in New Zealand, overseas studies have concluded it is prevalent at all levels.

 In 1993, Dr Sheilah Martin, Dean of the University of Calgary, “identified five commonly alleged sources of gender bias. While conceding that bias can arise in many situations and can assume a number of forms, she maintained that it typically occurs where decision makers:

  • fail to be sensitive to the differing perspectives of men and women;
  • apply double standards or rely on gender stereotypes in making decisions;
  • fail to recognise harms that are done to one group only;
  • apply laws or make decisions that exclude people on grounds of gender;
  • are gender-blind to gender-specific realities;
  • rely on gender-defined norms;
  • make sexist comments.” (New Zealand Law Commission, 2003).

AAUW (2016) report Barriers to women leadership that occurs due to the qualities of leaders are based on male models; (stereotypes) that the traits associated with leadership are viewed as masculine; men surpass women in networking to find mentors and sponsors; bias and discrimination and the lack of flexibility balancing family and work as women are viewed as the primary carer.

The purpose of this research paper is to identify potential pathways, for wahine and business, to enable Maori women with the potential to move into leadership positions.

The research has sought to understand the experiences and perspectives of successful wahine leaders and the barriers they faced.

The objectives of the research are set out in section 4.1, the methodology used in section 4.2, the findings in section 6 and the conclusions in section 8. The research provides a snapshot into the relationship Maori business and primary sectors have with the Maori economy; Explains the importance of kaupapa Maori in business and leadership; Provides an insight on the status of women and Maori women; Maori leadership, Maori women leadership and governance. Section 4.2: Research Methodology, focus on research method. Section 6 offers a brief and the voices of the Maori women who are the focus of this research. Section 7 weaves together the research by providing a discussion and interpretation of the overall findings. Section 8 presents the conclusions. Section 9 presents the recommendations.

Retaining Rangatahi in the Red Meat Sector.

Executive summary

The red meat sector is rooted deeply in New Zealand’s culture and epitomises a true testament of resilience. Navigating annual environmental disasters, political tension, disruptive technologies, economic crises, disease outbreaks, changing land use and consumer demands – this durable industry has adapted with rigour over the past century. Generation Z (born 1995-2010) is an ambitious, empathetic, knowledge-hungry generation flooding the workplace with their creativity, curiosity and tech-savvy skills.

The aim of this report is to understand what motivates Generation Z in the workplace, identify their workplace expectations within an on-farm, processing/supply chain context and discover how to bridge the gap between their expectations, and the reality of a workplace within the red meat sector.

The methodology includes a literature review on Generation Z, retention strategies, followed by semi structured interviews with twelve Gen Z employees and eleven industry leaders working in the red meat sector, to gain insights on their experiences and expectations.

Key findings:

Lifestyle, opportunities for learning, career progression, variety and open/transparent businesses are key drivers for Gen Z wanting to pursue a career in the red meat sector. Low pay, long hours, poor culture/management, and lack of career progression are the top reasons causing young people to leave jobs in the red meat sector. All Gen Z participants who had a goal of farm ownership planned to leave the red meat sector, change careers, or find other creative ways of building capital to achieve farm ownership.

Within a processing context, Gen Z want opportunities to work on their own project throughout the duration of their rotation around different departments. Employers’ experience with Gen Z in the workplace found this generation requires a high level of feedback, they want to be involved in the business and progress quickly. Poor leadership, cost and lack of support were perceived as the greatest barriers for retaining young talent by employers.

Recommendations:

  • Close the gap between employer and employee expectations: employers in the red meat industry need to be clear about what opportunities employees will have to learn, roles they can progress towards within their business and realistic about timeframes.
  • Foster open and transparent businesses; Gen Z wants to know how their work contributes to the bigger picture.
  • Invest in coaching and leadership development for red meat sector employers.
  • Provide more resources and education for young people to learn about pathways into farm ownership. Pathways into farm ownership are not linear.
  • Cultivate more structure for Gen Z employees in processors/rural support services. Rotating new employees around departments is valued by Gen Z however, giving them a tangible project to work on in the background will provide them with a greater sense of purpose that is needed to hook them in their first few months of employment.
  • Implement an accreditation system for employers that have good workplaces to incentivise them to improve living conditions for on farm employees.

Milk Without a Moo.

Executive summary

The NZ primary industry is no stranger to disruption and has adapted over the years to deal with changing market, environmental and economic conditions. There is a new threat on the horizon: alternative protein, sometimes called lab grown, cultured or synthetic food.

Alternative protein is not a new term and has not impacted the NZ primary industry in any major way so far. It would be easy to dismiss as a phenomenon that will happen elsewhere, that it won’t affect the pasture raised, free range, high quality products from New Zealand. Having researched this topic for a year, I do not believe this is the case – here’s why:

Dairy is the low hanging fruit for alternatives. Risk to the NZ primary industry from alternative protein is often considered in relation to the meat industry. Meat is a complex product, with many structural, textural, inconsistent aspects – different animals, cuts, types of protein etc. In contrast, milk is a homogenous product – it’s always a liquid consisting of 87% water and 13% solids. The complexity of meat will be very complicated to replicate successfully using alternative technologies, but this is not the case for milk. Dairy, and particularly dairy ingredients, are seen as the ‘low hanging fruit’ for disruption.

New Zealand dairy exports are mostly used as ingredients in other foods. New Zealand is the largest dairy exporter in the world, growing from $2 billion of exports to $20 billion in just thirty years. A large proportion of NZ dairy products are used as ingredients in processed food. In 2021, Fonterra made 74% of the milk they processed into ingredients. New Zealand provides 60% of the world’s whole milk powder exports, with a large proportion of this going to China to supplement their domestic milk production.

The retail market for milk powder pales in comparison to the demand for drinking yoghurt, shelf stable milk and flavoured milk drinks which are most likely what Chinese food manufacturers produce with NZ milk powder.

When dairy products become ingredients in processed food items, they are treated as commodities, comparable with the same product specification (i.e. milk powder) made all over the world and competing only on price. They lose their origin story which is what New Zealand prides itself on. Consumers don’t value the fact that the milk powder in their processed food such as a chocolate bar is made with NZ milk powder, so any competitive story associated with NZ production methods is lost.

Some of NZ’s highest earning exports are first in line for replacement. Plant-based liquid dairy alternatives such as oat and soy milk are not a threat – New Zealand only exports a small amount of liquid milk. Alternatives are aiming to disrupt the business to business ingredients industry, the very same market that NZ dairy currently thrives in.

Ingredients with the functional properties of animal ingredients are being reverse engineered from plants. Individual proteins (whey and casein) are the initial targets for precision fermentation technology. Perfect Day is producing whey commercially, and others are set to launch in the next two years. Protein exports account for 10% of New Zealand’s dairy export revenue – $2 billion in 2020. These are likely to be the first group of products which experience major disruption from alternatives. Cellular agriculture companies are developing technology to produce human breast milk for babies, could this replace infant formula made from cows?

There will be a tipping point. It’s a long, intensive process to produce a tonne of milk powder. You need to grow a cow, complete with head, bones, hooves, tail etc. You can’t milk her for the first two years until she’s had a calf. Once she’s in the milking herd, she needs enough food and water to stay alive, walk to the milking shed twice a day and produce milk. If there’s enough grass in the paddock this will form the majority of her diet, it’ll normally be topped up with supplementary feed such as hay or palm kernel expeller (PKE). The milk will be collected, driven to another location where the water (87% of milk) will be removed via spray drying, leaving just the 13% solids available to sell.

In contrast, precision fermentation technology bypasses the wasteful process above, using a tank of microbes consuming sugar to produce exactly the same molecules as milk – if they were assessed under a microscope, it would be impossible to tell whether they were from a cow or a fermentation tank. This technology has existed commercially for well over 40 years, producing components which used to be harvested from animals (insulin, rennet). It is now being leveraged at a far greater scale to produce components of milk, starting with protein.

Precision fermentation produced protein is predicted to reach price parity with traditional dairy within the next eight to ten years. The industry is not there yet though: the cost to produce insulin by precision fermentation is around $110,000/kg compared with a milk price of $9.90/kg, and precision fermentation start-up companies are signalling a bottleneck when it comes to manufacturing facilities to produce product at scale.

Large multinational companies are becoming involved to assist with scaling up – fermentation experts ADM and AB InBev are working on large scale fermentation capacity for food grade precision fermentation rather than pharmaceutical which will start to bring the cost down.
The cost and waste involved in milking cows is far greater than simply fermenting a sugar feedstock. Once price parity is reached, food manufacturers who currently value NZ dairy ingredients for their high quality, consistent, cost effective attributes will have another option. In applications where dairy is anonymously used as a functional ingredient, it’s highly likely these will move to the cheaper option which will have the additional benefit of helping meet sustainability goals and appealing to a wider variety of consumers (vegetarians and vegans). This will be the tipping point, where alternatives can displace traditional dairy.

New Zealand dairy needs to act now. This report identifies three key recommendations for the industry:

  1. Acknowledge the risk and react – Alternative dairy, especially precision fermentation, represents a significant risk to the New Zealand dairy industry due to the reliance on commodity ingredient products which will be easiest to replicate. The sooner this can be accepted and acted upon the better. Advanced economies that NZ tends to compare itself with are moving rapidly – investing in research via partnerships between government, research institutions and industry. New Zealand risks being left behind.

  2. Get involved – There’s an opportunity to play a part in this emerging industry – New Zealand has significant expertise in key areas required for alternatives to scale up. Leveraging this will ensure NZ dairy will continue to be profitable in the long term and provide capital to invest in the infrastructure required to make milk into money in different ways.

  3. Make milk into money differently – commodity ingredient products made without cows will become available at the same or better quality for the same or lower price within the next ten years. The NZ dairy industry is heavily reliant on spray drying of milk into powder; this will be one of the first products to experience disruption from alternatives. It’s imperative that dairy companies identify the elements of their product portfolio which are at risk of disruption and pivot milk towards future-proofed products.

Why do Sales Teams Succeed or Fail?

Doug Maginness Kellogg report image
Doug Maginness Kellogg report image

Executive summary

Everybody wants to have the best sales team but not everybody can make it happen. In this current era of pandemics and economic uncertainty, organizations are focused on talent performance and optimization across all teams.

Sales leaders need to understand the new realities of their dynamic selling environment and adopt new tools and management styles that empower their teams to foster an agile-driven culture. The most successful companies think regularly about how to improve teamwork in the workplace because they know they’ll see a return on their investment. They actively work to create the kinds of conditions that promote collaboration.

My aim for this project was to break down the barriers and help create an understanding of ‘‘Why do sales teams succeed or fail?’’ and how organizations can unearth problems and enable their teams to discover the solutions to high performance. My focus was identifying the underlying causes and pitfalls of team dysfunction, investigating, and evaluating the critical components that contribute to high performance. Then offer a strategy to allow the organization to improve the standard of their sales teams.

This research project used a combination of a literature review and thematic analysis as a tool to examine key themes, implications, issues and identify areas of key importance.

What has echoed through the literature review is that there are four fundamental elements as to why teams either succeed or become dysfunctional and fail.

  • Leadership – What style of leader you are and the environment and culture you create from the characteristics of your behavior when leading teams.
  • How culture always determines success regardless of how effective your strategy may be and the importance of taking the time needed to build a strong foundation at the inception of any sales team.
  • Team dynamics, the makeup of skills, knowledge, diversity, and whether the team is unified or harmonized.
  • And finally, the ongoing coaching and mentoring required to keep the team functioning at a high level.

The following are the main recommendations that have come out of my findings that offer a strategy to help improve the standard of team performance of any organization.

  • The need for ongoing leadership training and continuous mentoring. Great leaders attract, hire, and inspire great people. The benefits are far-reaching for all employees.
  • Have a clear organizational purpose. An organization’s values lay the foundation for what the company cares about most and should create a unified why.
  • Build an effective onboarding process and hire wisely.
  • Involve leaders from all levels in corporate communications and decisions.Multi-way communication is the goal.
  • Constantly strive for improvement – A relentless desire to improve and get better is one of the hallmarks of a highly successful sales team.
  • Get out of their way and stop micromanaging. Every employee or team member works best when they are given an environment where they are allowed to do things ‘their way’.

Leadership was seen as the most critical component to team success. Effective leaders provide clarity of purpose, motivate, create a safe environment, and guide the organization to realize its mission. Leadership throws a big shadow and is an ongoing journey of training and discovery which is never finished. Every organization should do its best to enable effective leadership.

The Rise of Agri E-commerce.

Shaun Green Kellogg report image
Shaun Green Kellogg report image

Executive summary

E-commerce is a fast-developing sales channel, on which the agricultural sector was a long way behind. This project looks at the growth/opportunities for e-commerce operations for agricultural supplies businesses. The willingness of farmers to use online stores to make farm input purchases is now very high (83.5% in favour of using e-commerce), and now many Agri supplies businesses are ready to offer this to their customers.

Literature was examined to understand key aspects of e-commerce, and key businesses were identified and interviewed to gain insight on e-commerce in agriculture. From the interviews, themes were identified and analysed to answer the study questions. In addition, a farmer survey was run to get the farmers’ thoughts on the use of e-commerce.

The key learnings of this project were:

  • There are still some real issues with rural internet connectivity. Although rural internet access is high, the quality of the internet is very poor (speed) making it difficult for some farmers to operate with Ecommerce.
  • Agriculture supplies businesses were able to respond quickly with e-commerce options during lockdowns, which helped them maintain turnover.
  • The pandemic accelerated ecommerce activity within the agricultural sector.
  • The presence of an online store helps existing “bricks and mortar” businesses to better serve its customers (omnichannel).
  • Some positive environmental outcomes resulted from increased e-commerce retail (reduced greenhouse gas emissions and less physical retail space required)
  • The willingness of farmers to use e-commerce options when purchasing farm inputs has increased. COVID 19 was a major driver of this, as well as some of the benefits (convenience, time saving) that it can provide.

The recommendations from this project are that –

Agricultural Supply Businesses:

  • Prioritise physical and online store (omnichannel) offering. Ensure farmers receive connected human and digital interactions.
  • Measure and monitor customer experience metrics to ensure their online sale platforms are performing and fit for use.
  • Follow Agri e-commerce developments overseas to apply potential opportunities for New Zealand.
  • Attract farmers with development of clever marketing and advertising ideas, especially to grow and maintain customers.

Farmers

  • Explore e-commerce options, as online stores offer a much better service than they did a year ago, let alone five years ago.

The decline of rural community services.

Caroline Batlet Kellogg Report
Caroline Batlet Kellogg Report

Executive summary

Rural communities have experienced much ‘hollowing out’ since the 1930s despite supporting the primary sector – a vibrant and integral part of New Zealand’s economy. Many rural centres have lost their hospitals, police stations, banks, government departments, schools, sporting clubs and churches. This report explores whether healthcare, employment, crime and education outcomes have worsened for rural residents compared to their urban counterparts due to these changes, and recommends enhancements to public policy to address this.

The report firstly outlines what being ‘rural’ entails in a New Zealand context. It then describes how urbanisation has increased globally, with only 13% of residents in New Zealand now residing rurally.

A brief history explains events that encouraged urbanisation. An evaluation follows to understand what impact has been felt within rural areas, and how organisations are currently operating to support rural communities.

A case study of two ‘rural’ towns and one forestry area is provided to assess how 2018 Census data of rural areas tracked comparatively to national averages. This research is essential to determine if additional Government or Non-Government Organisation support is required to ensure our rural communities thrive.

Key recommendations

The author believes the following recommendations can be made to Central Government regarding priorities for rural communities:

Healthcare:

  • Targeted incentives for rural health professionals to attract and retain health professionals in rural areas.
  • Establish a School of Rural Health to support rural healthcare in New Zealand.
  • Expansion of services offered by rural mobile health service providers to improve rural health outcomes for Māori and non-Māori.

Employment:

  • Expansion of the Local Government New Zealand ‘Think Rural’ programme to attract young people to rural areas for employment opportunities.
  • Increased visa opportunities to attract employees to the food and fibre workforce.

Education:

  • Targeted campaigns in rural schools promoting higher education upon completing secondary school. Government or private tertiary scholarships to be offered to rural pupils to attract talent.

Policing:

  • Ensuring that all rural areas have a designated police officer per head of population (metric to be prescribed by the New Zealand Police) with appropriate facilities.
  • Comprehensive induction and improved supervision and relief for rural police.

Other:

  • Expansion of Rural Community Hubs and Banking Hubs across New Zealand. Building the capacity of rural support trusts.
  • Establish a ‘one-stop’ website for rural communities, charities, authorities and project holders to collaborate and support rural communities.
  • Removal of additional postage costs for rural addresses.
  • Extension of the Rural Broadband Initiative programme and increasing coverage areas for cellphones in rural areas.

Plant and Three Veg?

Andy Wards Kellogg report image
Johanna Olsen Kellogg report image

Executive summary

To feed a world population of over 9 billion in 2050 it is highly likely that we will need to see growth in all protein categories rather than the dominance of one over another.

This report reviews the current literature and media narrative around the subject of plant-based proteins and the position they have taken in the protein marketspace. It outlines the background and importance of the NZ Red Meat industry and why this continues to be a highly valuable sector.

It analyses recent research into amino acid profiles in red meat and discusses some of the points made around the health questions often formed in consumer minds. We now have a society made up of a range of lifestyle diets, where new words such as flexitarian have developed, and veganism is not so far from the mainstream.
Red meat will continue to be a vital source of nutrient dense protein. The Covid 19 pandemic has enhanced people’s confidence in their home-cooking abilities, and they have sought out higher value premium red meat products to complement their menus. Red meat has symbolic qualities which makes it a key component for festive occasions and social celebrations.

Plant proteins will cement their place in the retail food cabinet as well as in the food service and ingredients sectors. They offer a genuine alternative to red meat protein and will be an essential contributor to overall protein requirements of a growing global population with a focus on human nutrition and environmental impacts.

Red meat farmers and processors should be confident in their industry’s future and continue to invest in technology, people, minimising their environmental impact, and targeted consumer marketing.
Meat alternatives have an important place in the industry to further engage consumers in new and different ways. When it comes to animal protein vs plant protein it is an “AND” story, supported by growth in the entire protein category.

What is New Zealand’s red meat marketing strategy in China?

Johanna Olsen Kellogg report image
Johanna Olsen Kellogg report image

Executive summary

China has traditionally been perceived by the New Zealand red meat industry as a destination for large volumes of secondary cuts. However, after four visits to China over the period 2012-2019, I felt that New Zealand still didn’t fully recognise the extent of change and opportunity for our red meat represented by steady economic growth in China. This project set out to investigate the research questions of “What is our strategy in China?” and “How do we target the premium end of the market?”.

China is New Zealand’s largest export market for red meat by both volume and value. It is important that we demonstrate our commitment to the market by exploring and investing in our opportunities there. There is some rhetoric about putting “all our eggs in one basket” in China. So that we less exposed to reliance on shifting high volumes into this market, is important to maximise the value we get from our product in China.

This project consisted of a literature review of current New Zealand market activity in China and interviews with a number of industry stakeholders. A thematic analysis methodology was used to distill key themes from the interviews.

Currently, there is an overwhelmingly positive disposition among New Zealand’s red meat exporters due to exceptional growth in both demand and pricing from China. However, this mustn’t be confused with New Zealand success in the premium space. Lamb can be found on the menu at some high-end and Michelin star restaurants and the most recognized brands include Coastal Spring lamb and Lumina lamb. New Zealand Beef is not a premium product in China. If it is to be, there is plenty more work to be done.

One of the key challenges in marketing our meat in China is the fact that almost all meat is sold at the border, and we largely lose control of it there. This makes it difficult to ensure consistency of product and consistency of supply.

Consumer understanding of grass-fed meat is a challenge and New Zealand has invested in market education around health and environmental benefits. However, it is not clear whether this opportunity is ripe yet, or if this is the best focus for New Zealand investment.
In 2019 there was a notable lack of connection with consumers through social media marketing in China and low New Zealand presence on eCommerce channels. This has since improved markedly and demonstrates that our attitude towards China as a destination for premium products is changing. The market opportunity is now recognized and being invested in. However, we are only in our infancy of exploring the premium end of the red meat market in China.

Strategy for premium red meat in China needs to start with the product. Recognizable “premium” brands must have a story, not just a label. This must be backed by consistent product quality and consistent supply.

There is a real opportunity for meat companies to find and scale their niches. This requires a stripped-back approach focused on consistency of product and supply first. Smaller producers such as Coastal Spring Lamb have proven that “starting and scaling” can reap great rewards and larger meat companies are identifying similar opportunities. However, the scale of most New Zealand meat companies doesn’t lend itself to this approach.

Identifying markets that can be supplied directly (not selling to distributors) is a potential opportunity. Currently, this is not a suitable strategy for most New Zealand meat companies. However, this blue-sky approach with “premium brands” would enable price discovery, increased market insight, increased margins. While complex, boutique meat-producing operations gaining a premium from a great story and traceability information is something we might see in future.