Cooper challenges farmers to use water more responsibly

Meat industry leader and Silver Fern Farms chief executive Keith Cooper has underlined the importance of fresh, clean water to the New Zealand primary sector's international reputation for producing high-quality export products.

Mr Cooper told the Otago Regional Council's 2010 Good Water, Good Farming forum in Cromwell on Wednesday night that global consumers, rather than governments and regulators, ultimately determined how successful NZ's primary export sector was in key markets.

"Our future success depends on how we understand consumers, respond to their needs, and segment the market," Mr Cooper told more than 100 attendees at the forum.

Global consumers in NZ's key primary markets demanded transparency in food production and processing. Food safety and security standards, animal welfare standards, traceability, environmental standards, and healthy and natural ethical trading practices, were all factors consumers took into account when making purchasing choices, Mr Cooper said.

"We need to use water more responsibly but productively," he said.

Mr Cooper told his largely farming audience that New Zealand enjoys an "outstanding position" in terms of meeting the standards global consumers demanded for export quality food products.

"We never want to have to defend that image. If we have to justify it, it's too late - we will have lost our customers and our connection with them," he said.

Whilst NZ's agribusiness sector might be a major producer, it was a poor user of water and land resources, which were its "natural capital."

"The primary sector needs to secure a sustainable future," Mr Cooper said.

This country is ranked 12th out of 193 nations for the size of its renewable freshwater resource, but the intensity of its use of the resource-less than 5%-was low by international standards.

Mr Cooper said global food production needs to increase 70% by 2050, with more and more land being converted to agricultural production to satisfy increased consumer demand.

There was increased investment in South America, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe where land, labour and compliance costs are much lower than countries like NZ, Mr Cooper said.

The NZ brand was a major asset to the agribusiness sector, and conveyed values such as quality, sustainability, safety and purity, while helping exporters achieve a price premium.

Water quality was inextricably linked to the marketing of NZ agriculture and of this country's tourism industry, Mr Cooper said.

This made it even more imperative that the actions of growers and producers in relation to water quality were consistent with the values of the NZ brand.

"This is critical to preserving market positioning and premium in the long-term," Mr Cooper said.

"Brand New Zealand" would be put at risk if day-to-day farming practices failed to meet global best practice when dealing with runoff, effluent, fertiliser application, stocking rates, and irrigation.

The primary sector needed to be "exemplary custodians" of NZ's natural resources, he said.

Mr Cooper said Silver Fern Farms' own brand "100 percent of NZ" stood on a promise of "purity, taste, and quality, naturally"; the story of the product and place; consistency, continuity and security of supply; and the integrity and reputation of Brand New Zealand.