Agricultural products, just fancy packaging for water
Released 30 Jul 2010
Dr Tessa Mills, Federated Farmers regional policy advisor
Water, you either have too much or not enough and it hardly ever rains at the right time yet New Zealand is blessed with abundant and frequent rainfall. This rainfall not only supports vast areas of pastoral farming but also forestry and other unirrigated crops including cereals, vegetables and fruit.
The fact that New Zealand is so water rich is fortunate indeed. Move over food miles, ETS and carbon footprints. Virtual water may be the next global phenomenon as we strive to understand the limitations of our planet. It's nice to be the lucky country.
Described simply, virtual water is the amount of water needed to produce a product. Countries such as New Zealand that a water rich are in the best possible position to export this virtual water in our products.
As an example it may take up to 200 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk, where as a litre of wine may take up to 120 litres of water to produce. Meat production is very water hungry. To produce a 1kg of beef it may takes up to 22,000 litres of water. It's just as well then that New Zealand has plenty considering our reliance on animal based pastoral exports.
We are in an ideal position to export water to water short countries beautifully packaged as top quality food products.
Some reading this article may accurately state that a number of areas in New Zealand have low annual rainfall and persistent droughts from one year to another. The truth is that in many areas there are still vast quantities of high quality water in ground water reserves or in local rivers and lakes. What perhaps is lacking is the ability to get that water where it's needed. Water is one of New Zealand's competitive advantages and Federated Farmers is campaigning for better storage of water to harness this advantage.
So if we increase the ability for New Zealand to store our rainfall and retain it for use in our productive sectors we can export this water in our primary products.
To discuss this or any other issues, please call 0800 FARMING (327 646)
