Kumanu lamb - How to capture a premium for the world's best lamb

Abstract

Key Issue - How can the Kumanu Lamb supply chain capture a consumer premium for the credence and other value added attributes of its products? New Zealand is a globally recognised for producing and exporting high quality lamb meat. During the period 2014-2015, New Zealand for instance exported 50,000 tonnes of lamb meat to China and 80,000 tonnes to Europe, of which more than half to the UK (Beef+Lamb New Zealand, 2015). Despite this leading position in lamb exports, significant proportions of New Zealand lamb enters the food service sector and is delivered to hotels, restaurants and institutions where it is frequently, not identified to the consumer as being of New Zealand origin. Frozen lamb may also be sold defrosted in retail butchers or manufactured into supermarket-ready meals. This can also be the case for New Zealand chilled lamb exports. Most chilled lamb is repacked in the market into supermarket retail packs with the retailers’ own branding. This lack of identification and branding can mean that the product effectively becomes a commodity.