SUMMER EDITORIAL 2020

Once again plant based foods and plant protein has been at the heart of many articles, advertisements, conference presentations and more. There has never been a better time to be a producer of plants! With the establishment of rules for intensive Winter grazing and continual focus on the quality of our waterways – plants are a very attractive and potentially profitable alternative to traditional grazing based businesses.

The October FMCG Business magazine contained an article on “Plant Power”, highlighting the increasing number of FMCG products derived from plants that are now being stocked in our grocery stores nationwide.

As quoted by Steve Mills, Countdown’s General Manager of Merchandise, “Alternative proteins, plant-based food and vegetarian NPD are seeing massive growth at Countdown and we are expecting this will continue into next year”.

I think by now we are all aware of the rise in Flexitarians – people who are choosing to incorporate more vegetarian and vegan meals in their diets. We even do this at home now too, having vegetarian meals twice a week. To be fair its seems to just encourage my husband to cook twice as much meat on the bbq over the weekends but the intention is there.

Recently at our annual conference of the New Zealand Grain & Seed Trade Association we had Michael Mayell (founder of Cookie Time) speak about the opportunities for products derived from the hemp plant and in particular hemp seeds as a highly nutritious food source. This was followed by a presentation from Leaft Foods who have created a plant protein from Alfalfa (Lucerne) which had wide ranging uses as a food product even creating egg free pavlovas!

The oat growers have turned what was a commodity product traded for low margins into a high value plant milk that leaves almond milk in the dust in regards to its environmental foot print.

And so I’m left contemplating whether we are being adventurous enough in the vegetable industry. What products or extracts could be derived from the vegetables we are currently producing? Are there opportunities to turn waste or second grade produce into high value nutraceuticals? What other parts of the plant that are not currently harvested and marketed could we be using to create new products for sale?

Yes, we have turned the zucchini into a zoodle but can we go one step further?