'Right in the firing line': New lab-grown milk substitute could threaten NZ's dairy sector
'Right in the firing line': New lab-grown milk substitute could threaten NZ's dairy sector
It's called precision fermentation - creating cow protein in the lab - and could replace dairy ingredients.
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Alternative headline: Lab-grown milk substitutes a huge opportunity for NZ economy
Won’t China just make their own milk proteins, thereby decimating our dairy industry?
This tech will happen. Hopefully we can put our lands to better use.
Like crops? From the article:
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.
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.
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.
What percent of our milk exports are A2 milk?
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.
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.
I will be very surprised if this change comes so fast we can't handle it like normal market changes.
I don't think we are handling normal market changes very well.
NZ Chocolate. It's far better than anything America makes, which isn't a difficult thing but it's at least where the goal is for "accepted".
Maybe that's true but again how much of a dent has NZ made in the premium chocolate market?
Probably, but that doesn't mean there will be no market for our product.
Maybe. There's a perception that sells a lot of NZ dairy in china, that NZ products are safer. Might apply to vat milk too.