Future of Food · Issue 09 · November 2025

As opportunities open, New Zealand faces a test

Can a production-first nation learn to think like its customers?

We are very good at making things. Our next phase of growth depends on how well we understand the people who buy them.

Before IKEA opened here, it spent a long time studying how New Zealanders actually live in their homes. It listened before it sold. That is what empathy looks like in a business, and it is the shift I think our food and fibre sector now has to make.

We have long leaned on provenance, efficiency and the clean, green story, assuming the world will want what we make. With a trade deal opening the door to India's vast and complex market, that assumption gets tested. Success will go to exporters who invest in consumer insight, share what they learn across the sector, and match empathy with evidence rather than nostalgia.

What the issue covers

  • Global success now depends on understanding customers' daily lives, not only on selling quality products.
  • India is the defining test: a huge opportunity that rewards cultural intelligence over production-first habits.
  • Limited funding, scattered insight and uneven capability make it hardest for smaller exporters.
  • Technology can spot patterns, but it cannot stand in a shop and see what makes someone hesitate before they buy.

A question to take to your next board or leadership meeting

When did someone in your business last spend a day with the people who actually eat what you make?

Work through it with me
Written by
Irene Chapple and Dr Victoria Hatton
Research led by
Ebony Leake
With contributions from
  • Andre Visser, Woolworths NZ
  • Geoff Allott, Quality New Zealand
  • Alice Moore, BerryCo
  • Carlo Magni, FORWARD insights
  • Louise Beard, FORWARD insights
  • Niamh Patterson, FORWARD insights
  • Hamish Renton, HRA Global

The Future of Food series was originally published by FoodHQ Innovation Limited between 2024 and 2026, while I was Chief Executive. Each issue is reproduced here in full, with thanks to my co-authors, the contributors and FoodHQ's partners.