New Zealand can’t compete with producers from countries like Brazil and Uruguay on price, our competitive advantage must be quality.
This was Agriculture Minister David Carter’s message to last weekend’s National Party conference and he’s right.
Our competitive advantage isn’t price but quality.
Food safety, environmental sustainability and animal welfare are what we have to safeguard and use as selling points.
If you’re poor and hungry price is the most important thing; you don’t worry about where your food comes from and how it’s produced. But people with discretionary income do care and make decisions based on quality as well as price.
Domestic producers in our overseas markets know this and will use non-tariff barriers to keep our produce out if they can.
We can’t afford to give them any excuses to do so.
