10 Mar 2015
NZ: Food safety an issue for everyone - ANZ
FXStreet (Bali) - A third food safety issue for the New Zealand dairy industry in three years has everyone nervous, notes the ANZ Research Team.
Key Quotes
"This incident doesn’t feel as bad as the first two due to it not having made it into the food supply chain. The response from government and industry looks to have been more comprehensive this time around."
"Nevertheless, such threats have to be taken seriously and every business from the farm-gate through to the supermarkets will be taking extra precautions."
"Indeed, Countdown has removed infant formula products off their main shelves and is putting them behind service counters to ensure products are not tampered with."
"The impacts of such threats/issues are difficult to gauge, but there are several channels to ponder: reputation; consumer confidence in New Zealand’s products/brand; a potential boost to competitors; overseas governments using it as an excuse to erect trade barriers (or leave them in place); and all the extra cost (i.e. from additional testing of product, promotional spend to reassure customers, extra security, through to police hours investigating the threat)."
"The first four are the areas of greatest concern as these can have outsized impacts on the industry and individual businesses as we saw last time. This time around the response appears more comprehensive and with little news from offshore markets overnight, the ground work done prior to the public release of the food safety threat appears to have calmed trading partners so far."
"On the reputation, consumer confidence and competitor impacts the key area to watch will be infant formula manufacturers and marketers sales. There is zero tolerance for any food safety issues where infant products are concerned, so even a mere hint of a threat will have some nervous."
Key Quotes
"This incident doesn’t feel as bad as the first two due to it not having made it into the food supply chain. The response from government and industry looks to have been more comprehensive this time around."
"Nevertheless, such threats have to be taken seriously and every business from the farm-gate through to the supermarkets will be taking extra precautions."
"Indeed, Countdown has removed infant formula products off their main shelves and is putting them behind service counters to ensure products are not tampered with."
"The impacts of such threats/issues are difficult to gauge, but there are several channels to ponder: reputation; consumer confidence in New Zealand’s products/brand; a potential boost to competitors; overseas governments using it as an excuse to erect trade barriers (or leave them in place); and all the extra cost (i.e. from additional testing of product, promotional spend to reassure customers, extra security, through to police hours investigating the threat)."
"The first four are the areas of greatest concern as these can have outsized impacts on the industry and individual businesses as we saw last time. This time around the response appears more comprehensive and with little news from offshore markets overnight, the ground work done prior to the public release of the food safety threat appears to have calmed trading partners so far."
"On the reputation, consumer confidence and competitor impacts the key area to watch will be infant formula manufacturers and marketers sales. There is zero tolerance for any food safety issues where infant products are concerned, so even a mere hint of a threat will have some nervous."