New Zealand’s food & beverage (F&B) manufacturing sector is large, with almost 2,000 enterprises, employing 80,000 people with a total revenue of approximately NZ$38 billion. It accounts for 54% of exports.

The government’s Economic Growth Agenda (EGA) has set a target of tripling New Zealand’s F&B exports over the next 15 years. While this is a clearly a stretch target all of our research suggests it is possible.

To achieve this, the path forward over the next 20 years is about turning ingredients into packaged/processed foods (e.g. infant formula instead of milk powder). This transition will require large amounts of new investment in research, plants and equipment, sales and marketing.

Conceptually this will require something approaching tripling the amount of capital in the F&B industry. Firms will need to make a significant increase in their investment to make this required transition to packaged goods.

(Source: Food & Beverage Information Project 2011 Industry Snapshot
Final Report, February 2012; v1.0, www.foodandbeverage.govt.nz)