High Value Nutrition: New Zealand’s reputation for high value quality products that are scientifically validated – the baseline

Abstract

Agricultural exports are important for the New Zealand economy accounting for almost 60 per cent of total exports (Statistics New Zealand, 2016). Traditionally, these have been in commodity products to key markets, first to the United Kingdom then more recently into China. Commodity prices however are volatile and tend to fall over the long-term, hence it is important for New Zealand’s prosperity that agricultural exports move from low value commodity to high value exports. This higher value can come from market differentiation and build on the attributes of New Zealand products. This can be from taste and quality but also from other attributes such as health and wellbeing enhancing attributes. Therefore, information is needed in order to understand how consumers value these extra benefits in food.