While bad news for dairy, the study found employment and economic output would be boosted in a scenario where farmers switched to growing crops, which would also result in significant reductions in emissions and nutrient loss.

But I also think of NZ produce as being more premium. There will likely be room for lots of players in a market like that.

[–] BalpeenHammer 7 points 6 months ago (8 children)

NZ does not chase the premium market in any product though. We don't sell premium cheese, premium milk, premium vegetables etc. We sell to the bidders in a global auction.

[–] Dave 2 points 6 months ago (5 children)

We absolutely sell in those markets. Grass fed beef and A2 milk are two examples. If you've been overseas, you can look for "New Zealand" on menus to see what's considered higher quality than a commodity.

[–] BalpeenHammer 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

What percent of our milk exports are A2 milk?

[–] Dave 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don't know, but I don't think it matters. It's easy to switch to if your main market is taken up from lab milk, A2 and Fontera actually fought each other as Fonterra blocked them from encouraging farmers to breed A2 cows. If needed we could solve that.

But the point was you said we don't sell premium products which isn't true at all. And when lab milk takes over the bulk of dairy, there will still be global auctions for "real" cow milk, because there will still be a market for it.

[–] BalpeenHammer 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I don’t know, but I don’t think it matters.

I think it does matter. It's illustrative of our market strategy as a nation.

But the point was you said we don’t sell premium products which isn’t true at all. And when lab milk takes over the bulk of dairy, there will still be global auctions for “real” cow milk, because there will still be a market for it.

Of course there will be a market. Just like there is a market today for V8 sedans. It's just the market is really small.

[–] Dave 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I will be very surprised if this change comes so fast we can't handle it like normal market changes.

[–] BalpeenHammer 3 points 6 months ago

I don't think we are handling normal market changes very well.

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