Fonterra: Platinum Sponsor of the 2020/21 Market Report
Andrew Henderson, Global Business Manager, Organic, Fonterra
Fonterra is responsible for approximately 30% of the world's dairy exports and with revenue exceeding NZ$17.2 billion, and is New Zealand's largest company.
Consumer demand for healthy, ethical and sustainable products that care for people, animals and our environment, while bringing value to communities are drivers that helped Fonterra embrace developing a more sustainable approach to farming. To that end, there are now over 70 farmers across the North Island who supply Fonterra’s factories with certified organic milk.
Fonterra chose to support the OANZ 2020/21 New Zealand Organic Sector Market Report as a platinum sponsor. The Market Report explores the growth of the New Zealand organic market by capturing the current state of the domestic market across the entire supply chain.
Here, Andrew Henderson, Fonterra's Global Business Manager, Organic, shares his thoughts on Aotearoa’s growing organic market.
As a platinum sponsor, why is the market report so important?
The market report is an important source of market insights that help to inform and drive investment in the industry. While New Zealand is a relatively small organic market for Fonterra currently, we are passionate about supporting the industry and driving growth and awareness for organics in New Zealand and our local communities.
Being a platinum sponsor provides a great opportunity to work collaboratively with the OANZ team and other sponsors to explore perspectives and share insights, to create a report that we hope will be valuable and relevant for the industry.
How has the organic market changed for you over the last five years?
Globally, we have continued to see strong growth in both consumer awareness and demand for organics. The primary driver for choosing organics remains ‘Health & Wellness’, but we are seeing other drivers such as animal welfare and sustainability become more popular in recent years.
These underlying consumer drivers have also resulted in an increasingly complex market landscape of competing and complementary claims such as non-GMO, regenerative, vegan, non-dairy, etc.
Where do you think the organic market is heading and how do you plan to be a part of it?
Consumer demand for healthy, ethical and sustainable products will continue to grow with a growing awareness of the challenges of our generation. These drivers will continue to support growth for organic as well as many other competing claims.
The challenge for the organic industry will be to address the ‘willingness to pay’ hurdle, both by making organics more affordable without compromising the values or quality, through more efficient supply chains, and more importantly communicating and building awareness of the benefits of organics relative to many of the competing and typically cheaper alternative claims.