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Eat, drink and prosper: successful food & wine partnerships
Key points
- Regional and terroir are buzzwords in cuisine and travel.
- Need to exploit natural synergies between wine and food in a particular region e.g. Sauvignon Blanc and mussels in Marlborough (brand as regional specialty).
- Idea: food miles (get locals and visitors eating local food).
- The rise of Farmers' Markets contributes to a sense of community and act as a stepping stone to further development (as the catalyst for the creation of SMEs).
- Organics has a very rosy future because consumers are prepared to pay.
- Would like to see a NZ Food Week.
Challenges:
- Few companies are export ready so need to focus on capability building;
- Government funding required as many SMEs have insufficient resources;
- Perspective needs to be long term (7-10 years) as progress takes time; and
- Trust is the key to collaboration.
Future:
- Working towards self-sustainable models (chain alliances, market development model with formalised services);
- Keep scope to food production, processing, marketing and exporting
- Branding a key issue: NZ versus regional food branding; and
- Have to sell NZ first, then regions, then the activities that sit underneath it.
- Challenges and successes:
- Leveraging off existing initiatives;
- No visual evidence of the trail; and
- Integration of stakeholders.
- Key things we've learnt:
- Food and beverage development is possible without glamorous vineyards;
- Size doesn't matter: grow local first; and
- Four C's: communication, confidence, cooperation and clustering.
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