By: Mike Hosking | Monday, September 10, 2012

It’s hard to get too excited about things like APEC because by and large not a lot comes out of them. But there is an important theme this year that points to the fact that once again this country is in pretty good shape compared to many around the planet.

Firstly, free trade deals benefit us more than most. Why? Because we’re pioneers at free trade, we’re good at it. The stuff we make, we make because we’re talented, we have advantages and we don't need artificially propping up. Most countries can’t say the same. Certainly Russia can’t and that's why it’s at least a year away before we ink a deal with them. But the world by and large is moving towards free trade as a concept if not a tangible proposition and the more of these sort of deals we do, the better off we are.

But in there as well is the growing concern globally over food. Last week the UN warned of another food crisis. Food is getting more and more expensive. America’s drought has seen basics like wheat and maize rocket in price. Now, as my 11-year-old will tell you given they’re doing a school project on it, there is in fact no shortage of food in the world. When the UN warns of a food crisis they don't mean we don't have enough of it, because we do. What they mean is the distribution is a problem and there are a million reasons for that from price affordability to crooked governments that keep it for a black market, not their people.

But the key here is the simple fact that of all the things we do as a country, we do food the most and we do food the best. From dairy and its various off-shoots to meat and its various versions to fruit and vegetables to wines - we are a food basket and more importantly we are a food basket of the highest quality. The beauty of that is, as Australia might well be finding out, that depending on whether you believe the growing number of analysts who are predicting it, mineral resources and the demand for them ebbs and flows depending on how much building and growing you do. But what the world always needs, always has, always will, is food. Yes the price may vary a bit and demand for individual bits and pieces might fluctuate, but people need to eat.

So we produce what the world wants, we produce what the world wants in terms of top quality and we do it without the helping hand of the state, thus making our endeavours entirely artificial. In other words for a country of our size we could not be in a better position to pedal our way through the troubled waters of international uncertainty if we were Hollywood script writers looking for happy ending. Or to put it another way, we are Quids in.

Photo: NZ Herald