Swiss stock piling is a civic duty, as an example Switzerland recommends that each household should have a stock of drinks and food for a period of seven days in the event of war or natural disaster.
Here we have parallels with Aotearoa New Zealand and a growing individual and collective duty to be prepared with a stockpile drinks and food in times of natural disaster and severe weather.
The economic and supply chain consequences of the pandemic/War in Ukraine and future climate change concerns have heightened the discussion about security of supply resilience further than food drink and emergency supplies.
Here a form of Swiss stock piling would be acceptable in Aotearoa New Zealand.
However, we must look at an Improved systemic resilience in the long term that fits for our country needs.
Bring far-shore into on-shore essential items and transforming "Just in Time" to "Just in Case, "within a commercially acceptable framework.
Switzerland is heavily dependent on food (45% imported). With over 3 to 6 months of essential food stuffs and goods kept in storage within its borders.
Switzerland’s history of geography has in grained strategic thinking about the countries supply since WW1.
One of the strengths of Switzerland’s geography in terms of supply chain resilience is the locality between Germany France Italy and Europe. Swiss imports are based on German products with a share of 24%, Italian goods with 11% and U.S. goods that supply almost 10%.
France supplies almost 7% of the country’s imports, while countries like China and Austria provide almost 4%.
Switzerland’s close ties with its neighboring countries are also reflected in the individual product categories:
Germany is the largest import partner in eleven out of twelve categories (exception: China is the largest import country in the category of textiles, clothing and footwear).
Swiss stock piling supply chain, its geographical resilience works on near shoring and just in case.
Switzerland is landlocked, surrounded by many of its top trading partners.
Switzerland shares its southern border with Italy, its western border with France, its northern border with Germany, and its eastern border with Austria and Liechtenstein connected by Road and Rail.
Relative ease of supply chain access bordered by friendly countries enables some degree of security and neutral isolationism.
Here Aotearoa New Zealand does not have the luxury of neutral isolationism. In terms of distance from our trading nations, we are already the most isolated country in the world.
The Swiss system of supply chain resilience has been designed to be fully involved by the private sector ensuring the security of supply of essential goods and services is first and foremost the responsibility of the private sector.
This within itself is the strength of private sector leadership. Thanks to a high level of Swiss exports, numerous international companies (private sectors) maintain considerable production capacity in Switzerland – for example for food, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and other industrial products.
This is due to the favorable framework conditions for global exports, which has a positive impact on supply security.
This level of Swiss exports and Swiss relevance ensures private enterprise albeit International and national have the magnitude of scale and resources to support and reinforces Switzerland’s scale of stock piling.
