Food glorious food
The food and beverage sector is an important component of New Zealand’s economy.
Reliant on primary production and land resources for their raw materials, effi ciencies, quality and brand, the food and beverage sector is sensitive to issues relating to national and corporate environmental performance.
In 2012 Landcare Research surveyed selected food and beverage companies to explore current environmental/sustainability practices and identify issues of concern. A similar survey had been carried out in 2007, so the researchers were able to assess some of the changes in the industry over the intervening 5 years.
The results were interesting with new issues arising, particularly increasing concern about climate change and natural resource provision, and evidence of improving practical environmental measures.
As expected, traceability featured as a key export market requirement in 2012; this was followed by mandatory certification, packaging specifications and mandatory labelling.
Food exporters also reported facing a greater number of market requirements and there has been a significant uptake of International Standards and Codes of Practice.
“Not surprisingly, large companies are also more likely to face demands for more rigorous certification and audit processes while smaller companies are more likely to take on voluntary environmental labelling to difference themselves in the market” researcher Cerasela Stancu says.
80% of responding businesses had implemented at least one practical environmental measure and 30% had carried out some form of environmental footprinting of their products or services with the focus on carbon and water.
The survey also highlighted the need for better market intelligence, the sector showing a preference for more in-depth and issue-focused analysis where implications and response options for NZ exporters are explored - as opposed to the current practice of broad market updates.
A surprising result was the high percentage (70%) of respondents who saw biodiversity and ecosystem services as ‘very important’ to their business operations – this is significantly higher than the world average of 27% amongst global companies. As ecosystem services is becoming a leading theme in corporate sustainability, reporting and performance benchmarking is also expected to play a bigger role in business practice. Interestingly, almost half of the respondents suggested government regulation as means to stimulate adoption of sustainability policies that will benefit the whole industry and the “clean green” brand.
Concern about climate change has increased significantly from 13% to 37% over the 5 year period; putting it in the top three concerns alongside food safety and distance to market.
Water scarcity and competition for water resources also features high on the issues of concern for food and beverage producers.
Other issues include the need to tackle global and national issues such as climate change, build capability in the industry to respond to new challenges (such as biodiversity and ecosystems services approaches) and to help shape smart government regulation shows the need for strong science to underpin the changes ahead for the industry.
This project was carried out by Landcare Research in conjunction with NZ Trade and Enterprise, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ministry for Primary Industries and Ministry of Business and Innovation.