Dairy Sector: Dairy Industry’s Image Has Taken A Drubbing
August 30th, 2010
The dairy industry’s various battles over resources, including water, have meant new phrases have entered the public consciousness, like it or not. “Dirty dairying” is an example. DairyNZ has kicked off a $2m “Go Dairy” campaign, initially with TV ads, later newspaper and magazine features as well as a school campaign, aimed at an increasingly rural-disconnected urban population who are often unaware of the industry’s contribution to the economy, and why they should be proud of it.
The new campaign promoting the $10bn industry follows a survey of 1000 people which found while 71% had a favourable view of dairying, and 70% understood there is a correlation between export success and their own material standard of living, only 57% saw dairying as having a noticeable impact on their lifestyle. BNZ economist Doug Steel says NZ consumers appreciate they’re paying more for dairy products when world markets are strong and paying a premium for whole milk powder. He says “they don’t tend to appreciate that when demand for dairy products is high, that pushes our currency up, and products like petrol are cheaper because the country has greater buying power. You can turn this on its head too. If demand for our commodities wasn’t strong, and the prices for milk and meat tanked the kiwi dollar would fall like a stone. Say it fell to 40c; then you’d see petrol at something like three dollars a litre.”
Steel says in general, the public doesn’t understand how it benefits from the performance of the export sector. DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackie says the dairy industry isn’t asking for the right to do what it likes. It wants to co-exist with others, and solve environmental issues it is aware people have concerns about. Mackie says NZ has something special in its dairy industry, and it’s important it is able to sit down and talk with the community and Govt about key issues, as well as how to address them.
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