The AERU Data Portal: An introduction

Abstract

Enterprises exporting food and beverage products from New Zealand are able to capture higher prices by marketing quality attributes of their products that are valued by final consumers. These attributes include items such as food safety (the most important attribute), animal health and welfare, environmental standards, social wellbeing and cultural authenticity. These are often qualities that cannot be directly seen or experienced at the point of sale, known as credence attributes. To help exporters capture these higher prices, the Agribusiness and Economics Research Unit (AERU) received funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment for a programme undertaking original research in five key export markets (China, India, Indonesia, Japan and the United Kingdom) to discover how consumers understand these attributes. The programme was known as Maximising Export Returns, beginning on 1 October 2013 and finishing on 30 September 2016. In 2017, the AERU received funding from the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge to undertake further research on how to create and capture consumer value associated with New Zealand agri-food exports (see Saunders et al, 2016a). This research programme is known as Integrating Value Chains. Part of the funding was to provide documentation on the Data Portal, with definitions provided of credence attributes used in the research. This report meets that requirement.