Written by Keri Mckenzie

For a small country, New Zealand has a rich diversity of soils, including some that are unique and rare due to New Zealand's position in the world. This provides the right attributes to grow a wide variety of healthy produce. The diverse topography, climate and geology all reflects in the soil. Great soil, clean air, plenty of water, and a temperate climate – create the perfect growing conditions. There are fewer pests and diseases than in other countries, and a lot more space to grow.  

Very simply put every country uses their land to create economic growth for that country. They export to countries that don’t have the ability, land space or right conditions to produce that good and vice versa with importing. 

So let’s scale this down to the thousands of NZ businesses that aren’t scaled to the point of exporting but are supplying a good at a regional or national level.   

How do they survive and is it important to respect and support them as a citizen of NZ? 

The short answer is 100% yes.   

I have a Beauty company myself and was brought up on a farm in the Sunny Bay of Plenty and have stood at markets and have watched our farmers and families work long hours in all weather to provide a good to a consumer that a lot of the time has no idea of the work that happens to get a bottle of milk or olive oil to the table.  Do we need to have an understanding? No - as we all have our own gigs going on, but to understand that by buying off a NZ Grower that is using our collective soil to produce a good is giving back to the land that holds where we live.   

Land is central to our identity as people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. It is our tūrangawaewae (a sense of identity and independence associated with having a particular home base), our place to stand. 

Think of this scenario – you purchase some olive oil from the NZ Grower, they are supported so well that they have to expand their operations, this then stimulates economic activity and creates more jobs. Higher rates of employment can often lead to consumer spending and an increase in support to other NZ businesses and the loop is closed and keeps circulating. 

I’m not saying that everything you spend your money on needs to be NZ Made or grown, I’m just planting a seed in case it's never been a thought before.  

And how does this relate to a Beauty Industry? 

You may have never thought about skincare as skinfood.  Quite literally a big portion of skincare products (especially natural ones) are produced from the raw ingredients of a food that is grown from the land.   

For example here’s a small list of some products that are grown in NZ and put into skincare:  

Oils - Avocado, Flaxseed, Hemp, Kawakawa, Olive, Borage, Calendula, Kiwifruit Seed 

NZ Native Extracts – Harakeke, Koromiko, Wakame, Manuka 

Hydrosols - Rose, Feijoa, Citrus, Manuka 

Essential Oils – Manuka, Kanuka, Lavender 

Other Products – NZ Glacial Clay, Beeswax, Seaweed 

When we started LUXWORKS Beauty (my company) part of our first process of R & D was finding what was grown on NZ Soil, so we could try to utilise these ingredients and highlight them in each product we have with the intention of as we scale that in turn scales their businesses which in our ethos as a company is a win-win scenario. 

So next time you have a choice between an imported good or service maybe see if there’s an alternative NZ one.  As they say ‘feed the hand that feeds you’ – in this case support NZ businesses because when they thrive so do we.