MCDONALD’S SUPPORTS KIWI PRODUCERS TO THE TUNE OF $500M

When you spend nearly $500 million a year supporting New Zealand’s primary industries, you have a pretty long shopping list

Potatoes, onions, lettuce, tomatoes they’re not unusual items on a iwi shopping list, but few of us buy them on the scale that McDonald’s does. Since New Zealand’s first McDonald’s opened in , the company has bought its ingredients locally whenever possible. ts policy is to establish long standing partnerships with the best producers in their field, allowing them the security to invest in their businesses, employ iwis and support their local communities.

Today, the vast ma ority of ingredients served up in New Zealand’s McDonald’s restaurants are sourced from iwi farmers, growers and producers, and even larger quantities of our quality primary produce are exported to McDonald’s restaurants overseas. n , McDonald’s spent an impressive

million buying ingredients from our primary industries to serve in its New Zealand restaurants, with a further million worth of produce exported, bringing the company’s total spend with New Zealand producers to a record million an increase of . million from .

Let’s drill down into those numbers to find out what they mean for iwi farmers, growers and burger lovers

Perfect Potatoes

In , McDonald’s served up , tonnes of locally grown potatoes to iwis. McDonald’s fries are their most popular menu item. They’re made from per cent real, natural potatoes, grown in the fine soils of Canterbury and turned into fries by McCain Foods in Timaru. Only four special potato varieties are approved for use by McDonald’s, chosen because they’re the right si e to make the right length of fry.

Know Your Onions

One of the benefits of McDonald’s loyalty to its local suppliers is that, because they know where they stand, they can plan ahead, hire staff and plant the large quantities of produce needed. Ever since that first restaurant opened in Porirua in , McDonald’s has worked with GSF Fresh! New Zealand to source the onions it uses in its burgers, salads and wraps. They’re grown over acres of land in North aikato and Franklin, and because they’re planted and harvested only once a year, the growers need surety a long time in advance.

Following harvest, the onions are stored whole while their skins harden and cure, then peeled to order throughout the year as they’re needed. At GSF Fresh!, the brown onions are finely chopped to give extra flavour to Big Macs, hamburgers and cheeseburgers, or cut into larger slivers to be used as an essential element of Quarter Pounders, while the red onions are chopped ready to be used in McDonald’s salads, wraps and other specialty menu items.

Lettuce Keep it Fresh

Did you know, the lettuce in the Big Mac or McChicken you eat today was probably still in theground ustacoupleofdaysago Lastyear, McDonald’s New Zealand served up tonnes of lettuce, mostly grown in the mineral rich volcanic soils of the Franklin region. Once picked, the fresh lettuces are inspected by their growers and chilled straight away, then transported to GSF Fresh!, where they’re inspected again, washed, shredded, packed and transported to your local McDonald’s within hours of harvest.

Tonnes of Tomatoes

In , McDonald’s purchased more than tonnes of tomatoes from iwi growers for use in their New Zealand restaurants. Mostly grown in Pukekohe, south of Auckland, they’re vine ripened in glasshouses to protect them from frost so they can be grown freshly all year round. Once harvested, they’re carefully inspected and washed, before being dispatched whole to McDonald’s restaurants nationwide. t’s not until they reach your local restaurant that they’re cut into uicy slices, ready to pop into your favourite burger, bagel or wrap.

For further information on where other locally sourced ingredients come from, visit the McDonald’s New Zealand website