That is according to Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Champak Mehta, who spoke at the Potato Industry conference in Mt Gambier, South Australia, on Monday.
Mr Mehta said NZ’s dairy industry had enjoyed tremendous growth, thanks to demand from China and the free-trade agreement between the two countries, but dairy was “not the only show in town.
The question facing the country now was ‘How do we replicate Fonterra in meat and horticulture?’, Mr Mehta said.
The country’s reliance on dairy to China was a “concentration risk”, and NZ had to diversify its agricultural exports, he said.
In response, the NZ potato industry aims to double the value of its exports by 2025, improve potato growers’ profits by $150 a hectare annually and lift the value of domestic markets by 50 per cent in the same period, he said.
To do this, Mr Mehta said industry rationalisation was needed, as well as a new focus on “functional ingredients” aimed at the health market.
Source: Weekly Times