We often hear sports teams talk about dealing with adversity, especially during interviews when athletes describe how their side overcame challenges to win. The response generally includes working together as a team, not giving up, and not losing sight of the goal. Many say that adversity has also made their team stronger. That’s how I feel about the produce sector as we recover from the impacts of COVID-19 and head towards our new normal.

It’s fair to say that everyone throughout the supply-chain has faced adversity since the emergence of the pandemic. It’s a reminder that no matter how well you plan ahead, there will always be setbacks – what matters is how well these challenges are handled.

While restrictions have eased and continue to ease, it’s difficult to say definitively what the road to recovery looks like. However, it does feel like New Zealand is at a turning point in our COVID-19 recovery. While most of the country is back open for business, we now face uncharted waters as we try to understand what the post-alert level marketplace will look like.

Businesses in our sector have adapted well and remained busy, however, we need to think about how we will operate and behave, ensuring there’s a plan for dealing with the post-pandemic world.

Every business in New Zealand will have a different story, based on the challenges they face. For some it will mean letting go of the good-old-days in order to move forward into a completely new future. For most of us it won’t mean large-scale changes, but might mean making significant adjustments to the way we interact and how we transact business.

While there is still uncertainty about the future, we need to remind ourselves that adversity is not something to be faced alone. Working as a team is essential to overcome adversity and there will be people and organisations connected to your business who you can lean on. At MG we pride ourselves on having strong relationships throughout the supply-chain and welcome the opportunity to support our business partners.

Overcoming adversity also requires patience and endurance. As we’ve experienced with COVID-19, it is not always clear how long it will take to overcome a challenge - adversity involves change that is not predictable.

Lastly, like successful sports teams, successful businesses are the ones who have  been able to keep a cool head, reassess, work together and seek help to get the right outcome.

Peter Hendry - CEO