New Zealand earned $25 billion to $30 billion a year on food exports, and the industry was growing 17 per cent a year. But he said international consumers paid about $120 billion for that food, and he would like more of that money to come to New Zealand.
"We're shortchanged about $90 billion. We can't keep all of that, but we can move further up the value chain."
Adding value to products was one of the points he stressed: "Add value, add value, add value."
The other was collaboration.
"If there's anything you might take away from this today, it's to get together, learn, collaborate. We have got to learn as a country to stop competing with each other and keeping our ideas to ourselves. If you share one, you get five back, and you improve your first one."
He's suggesting a food and beverage cluster for the Horizons region, similar to one started in Marlborough two years ago.
Marlborough's economy is built on wine, and Mr Ward said it was stunning. The Marlborough cluster has 30 organisations, including top wine companies. On a budget of $400,000 a year it can afford to have a person in China, promoting Marlborough products.
One of the innovations it is considering is using grape skins and seeds, called marc, the waste from winemaking. It is high in antioxidants and 50,000 tonnes a year is wasted. It could be fed to cattle to reduce methane emissions, baked into brownies or used in cosmetics.
"Waste is gold. We need to understand that," Mr Ward said.
