New Zealand ranks first in a new global food security
index produced by multinational real estate company
Savills.
The company has compiled its Food Security
Index as part of its latest global Impacts research,
which looks at the factors shaping the future of global real
estate.
The index, published this year for the first
time, measures how well a country provides sufficient, safe
and nutritious food. Food security is one of the key factors
Savills has identified as driving future global real estate
activity.
Ryan Geddes, managing director of Savills
New Zealand, says New Zealand’s global reputation as a
trusted food producer gives the country a distinct advantage
to leverage our high level of food security, which is likely
to benefit a wide range of industries including real
estate.
“New Zealand has a well-established
reputation as a global leader in food production. Our status
as a top food producer and exporter means we have built a
strong platform in food production and distribution
logistics, which is vital as the Covid-19 crisis highlights
the fragility of food supply and distribution chains around
the world.”
New Zealand’s ‘brand’ is centred
around our pure environment, which is a key advantage
benefiting our food producers, Geddes
says.
“Consumers globally are aware of our ‘clean
green’ credentials, with government regulations promoting
sustainable farming and a much smaller population per square
metre than many other food producing nations.”
New
Zealand’s outstanding natural beauty and the pure
environment in which we produce food are key factors
influencing our country’s ability to produce highly
sought-after food products for consumers globally, says
Geddes.
“These factors are part of New Zealand
agribusiness’ key differentiators, underpinning premium
market positions for our products in many
markets.”
Food producers also have the use of
sustainable infrastructure in some regions, for example
inland ports, which enable access to sea freight by rail, he
adds.
The rise in the importance of food provenance
globally has strongly increased the demand for New Zealand
food products, which is a key differentiator for our
country. Global consumer preferences today are becoming much
more focused on safe, trustworthy food sources with
traceable ‘farm to table’ origins, and New Zealand has a
well-established reputation as a leader in this
area.
All these factors contribute to strong demand
trends in the property market, Geddes says.
“In
particular, there is currently extremely high demand for
quality warehousing & logistics facilities in New
Zealand among investors – with tenants operating in the
food sector making up a significant occupier
group.”
“With real estate being determined by the
location of people, and those people dependent on the
ability to access secure food sources, examining food
security will become a crucial part of real estate
investment and development activity. In the future,
food-related real estate development will be increasingly
focused towards locations where populations have safe and
secure access to food,” says Geddes.
In the Savills
Food Security Index, New Zealand is followed by Denmark, the
Netherlands, Canada and Australia making up the top five
positions.
“Understanding food security has never
been more critical. Climate change and extreme weather
were
testing food systems to their limits even before
Covid-19 closed borders and shook labour availability,”
Savills states in its report accompanying the
index.
Savills analysed and ranked 38 countries around
the world on four ‘pillars’ of food security –
availability, access, stability and utilisation – to
construct the index.
- Availability
relates to a country’s ability to ensure an
adequate supply of food. Greater weighting is given to
domestic production, due to reduced exposure to disruptive
international influences. - Access
involves infrastructure which must be developed to
allow distribution of food from its source, which includes
warehousing & logistics-related property. Food must also
be affordable, which consists of a combination of factors
including personal wealth and food
prices. - Utilisation asks the
question: does the consumption of available
food result in reduced levels of malnutrition? Poor safety
and quality of food may actually compromise food
security. - Stability (or lack
thereof) can seriously impact all other pillars of food
security. For example, nations with high climatic, economic
or political insecurity have higher risk of supply chain
disruption, resulting in lower food
security.
The index shows that food security
varies widely around the world, with large variations in
country performance even between the most secure regions of
Europe and North America, although New Zealand is the most
food-secure country overall.
Regional comments in the
Savills Food Security Index report
include:
Asia-Pacific
Across Asia, once food
is available, access to it is not a concern, but mediocre
utilisation and stability drag on average weightings. Export
economies New Zealand and Australia top and tail the top
five spots in the overall index due to strong performance in
availability and stability. In contrast, developing Thailand
and Indonesia rank poorly due to low food quality in respect
of calorific and nutritional adequacy. Japan is the most
stable nation, and second in our rankings for accessibility.
India is in the bottom 10 overall and never outside of the
lower half of the table for any
category.
Africa
Considering they are both
major food exporters to Europe, Kenya and Senegal are
surprise laggards in the index. Cameroon and Tunisia also
hold one or more of the bottom places in each pillar. Food
access is less of an issue in these countries than
utilisation, where food safety, food quality and general
health all contribute to a heightened risk of
malnutrition.
Europe
Western Europe ranks as
the most food secure region in the world, led by Denmark,
the Netherlands and Ireland. The emerging economies of
Eastern Europe are all within the top 10 for domestic food
production, leading to a good performance in food
availability, but performance in other categories is highly
variable.
The Middle East
Stability, with its
consideration of politics, economics and business climate,
affects all aspects of food security and is an ongoing
concern for the Middle East. Despite this, good utilisation
and reasonable access means the Middle East as a whole
scores only slightly below the global average.
North
America
The highly developed economies of the United
States and Canada score well above the global average with
consistently high performance. However, Mexico’s
instability affects its own ranking and that of its
neighbour, the USA.
South America
South
America is severely hampered by the accessibility of its
food, particularly in terms of physical infrastructure.
Affordability is almost equally poor. South America is below
the global average
overall.
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