Dairy sector launches new strategic vision

"We are proud of our achievements over the last decade," says DairyNZ CEO Dr Tim Mackle. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand's dairy sector has set out its strategy for a future with a focus on farming within environmental limits "while maintaining our profitability and success on the global market".

Its new strategic vision will lead to a longer term conversation about what New Zealand's future farm and food systems could look like, says DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle.

The dairy sector today launched its new strategy, Dairy Tomorrow - a joint initiative involving DairyNZ, Federated Farmers, DCANZ, and the Dairy Women's Network.

Dr Mackle said the industry's achievements over the past decade has set the sector up to address the challenges and opportunities it now faces "as a result of the growth we've experienced over recent years."

The Dairy Tomorrow strategy has six commitments and 22 corresponding goals. Dr Mackle said some goals had firm time frames in place while others were "more aspirational".

"We want to begin straight away collaborating on strategies and actions toward achieving swimmable waterways and finding new opportunities to reduce or offset our greenhouse gas emissions. These actions will be ongoing priorities," he said.

"At the same time we've put some deadlines in place for implementing new initiatives, including to develop cutting edge science and technology solutions and to implement a new framework for world leading on-farm animal care."

Barry Harris, acting chair for DairyNZ, said the commitments and goals within the Strategy would help prepare the sector for the future. "Overall they reflect what is important to the farmers and stakeholders who contributed to the development of the strategy."

"We heard very clearly that farmers want options and solutions to help them farm sustainably. Maintaining our international competitiveness is essential, and leveraging new digital and other technologies will be essential to that," he said.

"We also want to ensure that New Zealand dairy remains a valued part of the diet. That requires us to be open and transparent about our performance. We know the demand for high quality dairy will always exist, so long as we can prove our production chain is sustainable.

"Another key theme is the importance of people to the sector. We need to focus on bringing talented people into the dairy sector, providing them with a great work environment, and helping them to develop their careers.

"We are already well on our way to being world leading due to our international competitiveness and the strong systems we have in place to ensure that our products are safe and of the highest quality.

"We want to ensure our sector is contributing to New Zealand- helping to make this country the best place to live, and for dairy to be a celebrated part of the national identity and Kiwi way of life."