China General Interest
Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy led an agribusiness trade mission to China recently. The trip was hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. The 13 member delegation visited Beijing, Shanghai and the provinces of Inner Mongolia and Anhui.
“This is a valuable opportunity to match New Zealand agribusiness companies with business opportunities. Of particular interest is pasture and animal husbandry expertise, general agricultural services, and the construction of dairy farms,” says Mr Guy.
“This trip follows Prime Minister John Key’s very successful visit to China in April, during which President Xi and Premier Li identified agricultural science and technology as among China’s priorities for further cooperation.”
“The visit to Beijing also provides the opportunity to follow-up on Chinese Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu’s visit to New Zealand in April, and the Strategic Plan on Promoting Agricultural Cooperation signed by Ministers during that visit.”
“New Zealand and China have a very strong trading relationship, particularly in meat and dairy products, and this visit will build on that. In April this year China overtook Australia to officially become our largest export market.”
The Chinese dairy market is expected to grow by 80.3% from 2011 to 2015, with non-fat milk powders and milk-based infant milk formula accounting for the largest sectors. Currently over 25% of NZ’s dairy products go to China.
New Zealand’s agriculture sector is unique thanks to the degree of exposure it has to international markets, with over 95 percent of dairy production exported. Such an environment has fostered a culture of ongoing innovation, with NZ companies demonstrating an innate ability to commercialise scientific research, leading to the emergence of world-class primary industry. New Zealand has successfully built high competitive and efficient primary production systems and exports to every corner of the globe.
Delegates were given an opportunity to give a brief outline of their business at a presentation to the Chinese agribusiness sector.
“It was a great opportunity for me to put the Taranaki Dairy Technologies story of low cost milk production through integrating grass based forage production and milk production directly to an audience of people from the Chinese agribusiness community”, says Howard Moore, CEO Taranaki Dairy Technologies Ltd.
China’s budding dairy industry has been identified as one of the largest future areas of opportunity for NZ agribusiness. Technologies that underpin NZ’s dairy farming can be applicable to the Chinese situation, particularly in southern China, with farmers seeking on-farm techniques to help develop their farming models and improve animal health. As a world leader in agricultural technologies, New Zealand is ideally placed to provide dairy production and processing technologies and to become a long-term business and investment partner in the development of China’s dairy industry.
The 13 members of the New Zealand trade delegation included AsureQuality Ltd, CRV Ambreed New Zealand, Livestock Improvement Corporation, Fonterra Cooperative Group Limited, Institute of Environmental Science and Research Ltd (ESR), Gallagher Group Limited, MilkTest New Zealand, Taranaki Dairy Technologies, Landcorp, Massey University, and PGG Wrightson Seeds.
Article courtesy of NZTE. Parts of the article were first published in the Kea China newsletter.
Jul 26, 2013