High-value consumer markets are demanding a continuously higher quality of products and enhanced food safety. In association with this, the increasingly competitive global market place and developments in information technology have catalysed the establishment of closer relationships and co-operation between participants in high-value supply chains. These closer relationships enhance the flow of information between participants and their ability to introduce strategies to improve efficiencies in supply as well as to decrease risks to consumers and others in the supply chain. These trends have significant implications to New Zealand farmers who will need to adopt systems to more effectively monitor and record their use of inputs and subsequent farm and stock management and make this information available to those further down the value chain. An inability to respond to these trends may result in farmers as well as processors, limited to servicing only relatively lower value markets. Keywords: agricultural sector, information technology, New Zealand, supply chain integration, supply chain management
