Venison needs to learn from lamb and mutton

Press, 11 March 1983, Page 22

Venison needs to learn from lamb and mutton

Those involved in the marketing of venison should benefit from the lessons learned from .New Zealand's present difficulties in marketing its lamb and mutton said Mr lan Donald in his keynote address to the eighth annual conference of the New Zealand Deer Farmers Association in Nelson last week. Mr Donald, chairman oi Wrightson NMA. Ltd. said that the deer farming industry's future hinged largely on the marketing of venison (as one of the four deer products). “Certainly velvet, hides and by-products will all play a significant part, and this diversity of product range is a material factor in the over-

all viability of deer farming but the growth in numbers oi farmed deer will essentially depend upon the amount oi venison we can market at acceptable levels." he said. “It is appropriate, therefore. to look at venison as the most important of the four product lines produced from our deer. “In thinking about the most appropriate marketing structure, rather than dairy products marketing, I think it is more useful to look at the history of our lamb and mutton marketing as a pertinent analogy to see what we should be doing with venison. "We fully realise that the scale of these industries is different but there may be some lessons we can learn from our present difficulties in marketing our lamb and mutton,” he said. Mr Donald produced statistics to show the relatively small per capita consumption of sheep meats in the developed world and the rapidly increasing consumption in most markets of poultry and pork, and the share the total United Kingdom household has been spending for selective meat categories between 1955 and 1980 (lamb, mutton, pork and poultry). The figures in this last example showed lamb and mutton sales to be tapering off while pork had risen steadily and poultry quite steeply. From this he drew the conclusion that notwithstanding lower pricing than pork and constant relative pricing with poultry over the last 10 years, the demand for lamb and mutton had declined. In offering reasons for the disenchantment with lamb and mutton and warning that marketers of venison in the future should profit from the lessons learned in the declining lamb sales, Mr Donald sketched briefly the history of New Zealand's involvement with the United Kingdom’s food supplies through the years. New Zealand played a vital role, he said, and therefore it seemed appropriate to continue to produce a commodity in frozen form which was cut and prepared by the U.K.-based wholesalers and butchers’ chains who, in more recent years, had adapted their trade to accommodate the demands of supermarkets. “Preliminary analysis would indicate that given reasonable levels of affluence of the western world, it is not a function of relative price but appeal — appeal which is made up of so many things, taste, presentation, fat content, health considerations, and convenience. “Increasingly one is drawn to the conclusion that with changing consumer habits and in particular greater

affluence, the working wife, and the need for convenience, that the old attractions of New Zealand lamb, namely as a cheap joint or casserole, have little appeal to changing U.K.. Western European and American lifestyles." he said. "It is no longer sufficient to think in terms of how much tonnage we can flog — this is the commodity trading argument. I agree you can make strong arguments where New Zealand is producing a commodity to have only one exporter because, without product differentiation, all there is left to compete on is price — something our meat board is learning, 1 trust, after their forlorn endeavours to talk up the price of New Zealand meat based on its so-called ■quality',” said Mr Donald. “What we should be asking is how can we secure a market for the New Zealandproduced product against the fierce marketing of competing sheep meat producers and beef, pork, poultry and fish producers," he said. “How do we develop a sustainable, competitive advantage in the international meat business — something we have clearly failed to do over the past decade?” he asked. One answer, it seemed, was to concentrate on the market and the competitive forces within it rather than purely on the product which has remained largely unchanged in 100 years. “We need, it seems, to differentiate our product in such a way that it is clearly distinguished in the market place by a brand name or

names which signify to the modern day consumer all that he requires to meet his wants. This inevitably means processing beyond primal cut stage," said Mr Donald. He believed this should be done in New Zealand rather than overseas. Benefits to be derived from this would include greater control of the market through "own" brands and promotion, the chance to be a "price maker" by establishing its distinctive brand image and lower freezing, packaging and transport costs if the product was cut in New Zealand and sold chilled or frozen thereafter. “The key to success is cracking it at the market end. This, I believe, calls for real entrepreneurial flair and the best talents we can find in consumer marketing. “These qualities are unlikely to be found within a monolithic, producer-con-trolled. board structure. “The management empathy has to be right. Marketers perform best when they are free to react quickly to the market place. They must be light on their feet with a flat organisation structure. If we are dealing in a commodity where price is the only variable, one seller from New Zealand makes some sense. If we are dealing with differentiated products, I believe such an approach has enormous dangers," he said. Mr Donald said it was vitally important that venison ("this exciting new product”) should not be allowed to become a “commodity.” “We must apply marketing flair to keep the product upmarket and we must create

a growing demand lor it which will more than accommodate the increasing supplies that will become available as our national herd increases from its present level of 200.000 deer to the 1.000.000 forecast by the end of the decade." he said. "It is all right to think •New Zealand.' and not 'feral' or ‘farmed,’ while the volumes are small and are being sold to the ‘game’ consumer in West Germany and Western European countries, but we have to develop a market much larger than this over the next decade if we are to handle the growing tonnages that will be available thereafter. "Already there has been some difficulty in disposing of present small volumes, at what we regard as being acceptable prices in the current season,” he said. He believed, too. it was important to upgrade the quality of velvet and to develop new products which could be sold to eastern as well as western markets. At present the quality of NewZealand velvet was regarded as third after Russia and China, but there were encouraging signs that NewZealand farmers were already applying their traditional animal husbandry skills learned with sheep and cattle, to deer, said Mr Donald. He believed that a desirable marketing structure was the Game Industry Board which could provide the essential disciplines and the processing and marketing effort.