Rewarding Responsible Innovation when Consumers are Distant from Producers: Evidence from NZ

This paper examined the question of whether local producers can be rewarded for responsible innovation (for example, to improve sustainability of production) when the bulk of their consumers are in distant markets. This is relevant for New Zealand because so much of the country’s agri-food production is exported.

The concept of ‘responsible innovation’ is the subject of an expanding literature. As Vincent Blok and colleagues have recently analysed, practical issues undermine the adoption of responsible innovation in industry. These issues are intensified for agri-food producers who export a large proportion of their production to distant consumers, as is the situation in New Zealand. Even in this case, however, this study reports evidence that final consumers of agri-food products in five of New Zealand’s key export markets value credence attributes produced by responsible innovation and that this has the potential to increase returns to the country’s domestic producers. A national movement of New Zealand agribusiness leaders is pursuing this vision, but further research is needed to understand how responsible innovation can operate in global agribusiness value chains.