The Country 01/04/26: Dr Victoria Hatton talks to Jamie Mackay

Food futurist at Food HQ based in Palmerston North. Today, we look at the Middle East War's potential to create a worldwide food crisis. And how New Zealand is positioned to combat the headwinds.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctor Victoriahattan is a food futurist out of Food HQ
and Palmi North. Here's a question for you, Victoria, to
kick off Air Yarn today. What sort of future has
food got production wise? Under the current limitations and conflicts
that are happening around the world. It's not an easy
business to.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Be in, Hi, Jamie Lovely to be on the show again,
it's not an easy business to be on to be in.
And it worries me that we're not just talking about
one issue, like the price of diesel. At the moment,
there's viertilized spiking. You know, harvesters are running flat out

(00:40):
on maize and kiwi fruit and apples from north to south.
Wheat's about to go into the ground. And at the
same time McCain and what is put out of baseball processing.
You know, if these were individual problems, then we could
probably see a way through. But they're all connected and
landing on farmers at probably the worst possible time in
the calendar.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Could what's happening It's actually difficult. Yeah, okay. Could what's
happening in the Middle East East effectively create a food
crisis around the world? Or am I over egging it?
To use a food analogy.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
No, your food analogy is one hundred percent accurate. And
I think that we need to pay more attention to
the food system, not just in New Zealand but globally
the Middle East. The golf is actually quite a significant
choke point, not just for fuel and fertilizer, but actually
from a food production perspective as well. So if you

(01:38):
think about the food that's generated and grown in the
Middle East, the fact that Qatar opened up dairy factories
through COVID so that they could be self sustainable for
their dairy production, three point four billion dollars of our
exports go into the Golf. It's a significant issue from
a food affordability perspective, knock on effect into our economy

(02:02):
over the next few months if we can't unpack that. Actually,
I think we do have food affordability of food accessibility
issue that we're just not looking forward to.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You touched on the closures of the mccains and what
is plants. Is this off the back of cheap knockoff
tin peaches from China or whatever. Surely this is short sighted.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
It is short sighted, but everything comes down to cost,
and cost of production is really you know, it's critical
for these big producers. At the moment, everybody is calculating
their costs and efficiency, and if it's just not efficient
to produce food in New Zealand, then why would you
do it. Nobody's going to do it out of the

(02:50):
goodness of their heart, you know, just because they think
we should keep food production here in New Zealand. They're
saying that the cost of fuel is a contributing factor.
The fact that we rely one hundred percent on important fuel.
We close Mars and Point with no foresight, no stress
testing around what would happen, you know, in years to come.

(03:11):
So it is I think it isn't shortsighted, but it
is a compounding factor that we've just not seen.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Well, you're a food futurist, surely the future is to
produce as much food as closely as you can, all
around the world to the point of consumption. It's all
very well having knockoff ten peatures from China, but I've
got to travel half the circumference of the world to
get here, agreed.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
But it's clearly cheaper for the company that's producing them
to do that. So we have to look at what
would be attractive for companies to maintain their production facilities
here in New Zealand, and the more expensive production becomes here,
the less likely people are to want to produce food here.
And we have to analyze that.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
Well, it's on a positive note because it's all rather
gloomy at the moment. We are a very efficient producer
of food. We're a producer of low carbon food. Surely
that paints in New Zealand into a good picture in
the future. You know you're a food futurists. This is
right up your alley, Victoria. You can say something inspiring
for the farmers listening to this.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Agreed, We are the most efficient producers of dairy and
red meat in the world, but we export that to
a market that's willing to pay for it. The problem
is is that New Zealand isn't the market that's currently
willing to pay for that food. So farmers should be
making a profit. Their margins should be great. You take
red meat, it's the best year in fifty years for profit.

(04:46):
But the compounding effect of fuel and fertilize it will
mean that that margin is going to be reduced. But
it shouldn't stop us from believing with the most efficient
producers of food in the world.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
And on that positive note, well love you and Leadia
you always love your time here on the country. Doctor
Victoria Hattan, food Futurist, Out of Food HQ, enjoy the
enjoy your day in Auckland.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Thanks Jermy, wonderful to chat as always