Climate responsibility and actions have very quickly become part of 'business as usual' and it is now expected that companies will be tracking in the right direction in this space. With our Climate Roadmap set to be released shortly, the work we have done together in this area puts us in a good position to reach the targets we have set and meet consumer demands.
From time spent recently in our markets in Chicago, Washington and Minneapolis, one thing that really stood out for me was the emphasis that customers are now placing on regenerative agriculture or 'regen' as an expectation of its suppliers.
Prior to the trip I was already aware that regen was being used as a new and interesting marketing tactic, with an increasing number of products being labelled and promoted as 'regenerative'.
However what I didn't fully appreciate was the extent to which it is a focus overseas - during my time spent in the North American market it became very clear that regen is the biggest thing since sliced bread in many respects.
I have learned that global interest in regen is hugely on the rise, with Google searches of 'regenerative agriculture' massively increasing over the past few years, regenerative agriculture named as Whole Foods' 2020 top food trend and many major agribusiness and FMCG players talking about this topic.
Everybody has a has a slightly different view on regen - how they view this internationally is different to how we view it domestically. For our customers regen tends to cover things like soil health and fertility, the water-holding capacity of the soil, biodiversity and carbon sequestration through the likes of vegetation.
When you consider the pasture-based farming system that we have here in New Zealand compared to the housed or contained dairy systems that are the norm among our international peers, we naturally do really well when it comes to regenerative farming - both from the practises we follow and the outcomes we have the ability to monitor.
For us to already be in such a strong, world-leading position in the regen space means we have a head start on our international competitors and can be really proactive and positive in terms of taking what we already do and promoting that. We don't need to reinvent the wheel or ask for anything additional from our farmers - we simply need to effectively market the farming system that already exists here in New Zealand in a way that our customers will find beneficial for their consumers.
In fact, during my trip one of our customers said that internationally we are regarded as the 'Tesla of regen'. It was cool to hear that we are already seen this way and have such a strong reputation in this emerging space.
Because of how we farm here in New Zealand and the relationship between nature and climate, I am excited to start pairing up our nature and our regen position alongside our climate ambition in a way that our customers can see is valuable and desirable - hopefully that then turns into further value for our farmers and the Co-op.