Helping New Zealand’s organic industry body develop a viable business model for the future
New Zealand’s organic sector is at a critical crossroads. Despite global momentum behind organics, the sector here remains fragmented and underfunded – operating on outdated models. With global standards rising and local pressure building, Organics Aotearoa New Zealand (OANZ) knew it had to chart a bold new course to unify the sector and futureproof its economic viability.
The organic sector in New Zealand represents only .06% of primary industry output. The organic sector is hugely underrepresented here in Aotearoa, compared to overseas markets, for example, 15% of fruit and veg in the US is organic.
Commercial reality isn’t always rosy either. It’s a massive commitment to become certified organic, and businesses don’t always see ROI when selling into the domestic sector. There’s a lack of consumer understanding about what organic means and why you should buy it. New Zealanders can buy cheaper options – like produce from farmers’ markets – and feel like they’re doing the right thing.
A diverse industry with a vast range of needs
New Zealand’s organic industry is hugely diverse. It has grown by default rather by design and almost every part of the food and fibre ecosystem is represented.
Tiffany Tompkins is Chief Executive of Organics Aotearoa New Zealand, commonly known as OANZ. She explains:
“The organic sector is quite unique. It is pan-agriculture and also includes the ecosystem of certifiers, retailers, exporters, imported brands, and products manufactured here out of imported organic ingredients.”
“When Andy asked me to map what our sector looks like, I came out with a horrible, scattered, Jackson Pollock mess of a thing. Our sector has such breadth that OANZ is having a hard time trying to meet so many different needs. We're getting pulled and pushed all over the place. We know we can’t be everything to everyone, but that’s the expectation.”
An outdated industry body model
Many industry organisations in the primary sector struggle to create value because they’re operating on old-fashioned constructs. OANZ was established as a registered charity and an industry organisation based on membership. Their member council dictates their work, and they rely on donations and membership fees. They’re resource poor and reactive as a result.
“Membership organisations are dying out because they’re too hard to operate, and we’re finding that to be the case. We’re stuck in an outdated structure that constantly holds us back, forcing OANZ to work overtime just to meet baseline expectations. In a sector as diverse and resource constrained as ours, it’s incredibly difficult to be the unifying anchor our members need, especially when everyone’s competing for limited time, funding, and attention.” says Tiffany.
The diverse nature of New Zealand’s organics sector has also led to a degree of friction and fragmentation. Tiffany says: “The industry is full of independent leaders. It’s hard to encourage everybody to work together to reach strategic goals, develop policy, or advocate to the government, and when you have a fractured sector, it's really hard to grow.”
Redefining organic sector leadership
OANZ challenged me to help them develop a more viable business model. Tiffany summarises: “We need to come up with a new model for the organic sector. There's a lot of growth opportunity and we need to find ways to help the sector harness that growth. But as much as we're progressive, we’re also poorly funded, so it's hard to move forward.”
OANZ applied for funding through MPI’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund to look at creating a new self-sustaining body for the organic sector.
Tiffany explains: “We’re working to build sustainable funding models that break our dependence on membership fees and the same commercial leaders. The sector has been stuck in a scarcity mindset for too long, waiting for outside intervention instead of building our own resilience. It’s time to shift that. We want to unify the sector by bringing together its many voices into a single, clearly defined organisation, one with the mandate and structure to meet the real demands of today’s organic industry and unlock future growth.”
Taking a customer-first approach based on member needs
Reimagining a sector body for commercial success involves designing a body to solve challenges members have in their businesses. For OANZ, that meant understanding the commonalities between their diverse members, working out how the sector can be more effective and identifying barriers holding the sector back. Once we understood what the sector needs to grow, we looked at ways to drive the sector forward and reimagined the role, the business model, the positioning, and the structure of the sector body to deliver the needs identified. We took a customer-first approach based on member needs.
Tiffany recalls: “Andy came to Blenheim and we had a massive brain dump. We’re full of ambition but finding the time and headspace to sort through ideas is nearly impossible when you’re constantly in survival mode. Andy cut through the noise. He turned chaos into clarity and helped us identify real opportunities across different parts of the sector we hadn’t seen before. We took those early concepts to the Board and spent a full day working with them to stress-test the thinking and gather their input.”
Because of the Sustainable Food and Fibre funding, OANZ had funds to consult properly with the sector. Tiffany says, “We organised five sector-wide consultation sessions to give Andy the insights needed to shape a new model grounded in reality. He engaged with both domestic and export-focused groups, facilitated in-person sessions in Auckland and Christchurch, and led a dedicated workshop with the regenerative sector. In total, he connected with around 80 stakeholders across the organic value chain, ensuring diverse perspectives were heard and reflected in the work.”
In a project like this, uncertainty isn’t a bug, it’s a feature
When you're doing big projects with multiple stakeholders and many moving parts, you've got to get comfortable with things not being clear in order to get clear. That takes practice. It’s normal to want immediate answers but get comfortable with not knowing … yet.
When I facilitate consultation, my job is to elicit all the info you need to make good decisions, then work out what it means. That can mean encouraging people to think about things differently, or being provocative, or gently blowing up things people hold dear because they don’t serve you anymore. I want to create tensions. I want people to disagree with me. That’s how I elicit interesting points of view.
If a project feels foggy and confusing to begin with, generally speaking, that's a good thing. In fact, if a project isn’t foggy to begin with, I'm not doing my job. Ambiguity isn’t a problem. It means there's lots of interesting stuff out there. If a project seems too clear at the beginning, I get nervous. There's a risk there’s nothing to work with, or I’m missing something big.
Tiffany recalls: “Andy did a great job with the consultation. He got people to think about the sector in different ways. He asked members questions no one's asked before and encouraged them to consider different perspectives. He also made sure everybody's voice was heard and everybody felt included. He wasn’t just listening to the Fonterras and Zespris. That’s important for us because our small, independent members can resent the power of the big corporate giants. Andy was key in helping to level the playing field.”
Going beyond organic to a premium, integrated offering
This definitely hasn’t been the easiest project I’ve tackled, yet despite their unique challenges, OANZ is in a good place. Tiffany explains: “Andy's helped organise our thoughts and bring all our industry insights together into a model for an organic sector body that we're excited about. We’re looking at a model where we create two organisations – a commercial body focused on promoting premium production, including regenerative and organics, as well as a scientific body to handle the research needed to support that commercial growth.”
“Right now, we have a serious problem with scale. We're not big enough to achieve all we want to achieve. A big win with Andy has been understanding how we can partner with others to make scale a centrepiece of our strategy. We see OANZ going beyond organic into premium non-GMO and regenerative. There is a spectrum of environmental practises that create value and we can group those practices as a premium offering that includes organics. There's a clear path to grow organics within this premium integrated framework.”
“Andy brought the fresh perspectives OANZ needed. He gives people the ability to look at something with a different lens and new ideas click when you think about problems in a different way. That makes him extremely valuable. It’s so easy to work with Andy. He's fun and he’s helped us cut through the noise to get really clear on what we're trying to achieve, and how we’re going to achieve it.”
Is your business model fit for future scale?
If you fear your business model might not be fit for our increasingly uncertain future, get in touch. I develop clear commercial strategy for companies seeking scale. This was a tough business model redevelopment to meet the incredibly diverse needs of a fragmented sector.
“Andy got people to think about the sector in different ways. He asked members questions no one’s asked before and encouraged them to consider different perspectives. He also made sure everybody’s voice was heard and everybody felt included.”