Food and fibre exports are the backbone of South Canterbury’s export economy, accounting for an estimated 97% of goods exports from the region and contributing 6.7% of New Zealand’s total food and fibre exports.
The key food and fibre exports include 10% of national dairy exports, 20.5% of arable exports, 9.7% of seafood and aquaculture exports, and 4.4% of meat and wool exports.
The Food Production Business Connection Group recognises the importance of this sector coming together as a collective voice to support sustainable growth, strengthen resilience and identify the opportunities that will shape the district’s future economy.
Meeting quarterly, the group is made up of major local and global brands, including Fonterra, Oceania Dairy, Barkers, Mount Cook Alpine Salmon, Heartland Potato Chips, McCain Foods, Sanford and Mānuka Honey Collective. These meetings provide a vital forum to share knowledge, explore innovation, identify productivity opportunities and discuss emerging market trends, infrastructure needs, regulatory settings and workforce challenges.
As Timaru District’s economic development agency, Venture Timaru plays an important connector role by bringing the right people, partners and opportunities together. This includes facilitating presentations or links to funders, infrastructure providers and local decision-makers. Through this role, Venture Timaru helps ensure the sector is well supported, well connected and positioned to respond to change, including opening opportunities to adjacent or emerging industries that can support future growth.
The strength of the group lies in its willingness to collaborate openly — sharing challenges, insights and opportunities across areas such as staffing, innovation, productivity and investment. By working together, members are helping lead advocacy for positive change, strengthen business capability, grow their industries and people, and deliver lasting benefits across the wider food production ecosystem and our community.
