Growth spurt leads to NZ shopping trip

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

A prosperous, agricultural region in China has mounted the country's biggest trade-seeking effort in New Zealand.

More than 70 high-ranking Government, research and business representatives from the southwestern province of Yunnan met about 80 of their New Zealand counterparts at a one-day conference in Auckland on Friday.

The Vice-Governor of Yunnan, Huan Binsheng, said this first big conference for the province was a significant step.

The event was privately organised but had the support of Trade NZ and the Ministry of Agriculture.

The ministry's director of international policy, Alan Kerr, was the most senior New Zealand official attending.

He said that as New Zealand exports to China were worth $620 million last year, but Chinese imports topped $1.4 billion, New Zealand was keen to address the trade imbalance.

Agriculture and forestry made up a high proportion of New Zealand exports, Mr Kerr said, and after Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton's visit to China two weeks ago, a new initiative by the two countries was underway.

A China-New Zealand agricultural commission had been discussed by Mr Sutton and his Chinese counterpart, and Mr Kerr was working on a draft agreement for the body.

The market services manager for Trade NZ, Jonathan Watt, said the response by New Zealand businesses to the Yunnan overture had been promising and encouraging.

"It shows the growing depth of our knowledge and the deepening of the relationship [between the two countries]," he said.

The Yunnan delegation had come with business prospects that included buying New Zealand technology, a change from the past attitude of seeking joint ventures and foreign investment.

It had been explained to past Chinese delegations that New Zealand businesses were often not big enough for joint ventures but they were able to sell technology and expertise, Mr Watt said.

"The Chinese are starting to adopt that approach."

The Yunnan delegation, which is holding similar events in Melbourne and Sydney this week, had a shopping list of 41 projects for which it wanted a variety of input.

The list included new potato varieties suitable for processing, new varieties of genetically engineered flowers, nitrogen gas preservation technology for vegetables, production processes for honey and embryo-transplanting methods for beef cattle.

The home of the fruit once known as the Chinese gooseberry is even seeking new kiwifruit varieties.

The New Zealand response ranged from crown research institutes, universities, animal breeding services and engineering companies to emu farmers, vegetable growers, the Ruapehu District Council (whose interest was in forestry projects), and an agricultural engineering company that has developed technology to dry and package kiwifruit.

Pukekohe melon growers Tony and Jennifer Reaney were "looking for opportunities."

Dr Willi Vivanco, of AgResearch, was hoping to sell the institute's advanced animal breeding technology, which includes transferring embryos and cloning.

Waiuku bulb grower Arend Smilde already exports to Europe, the United States and Taiwan and was "looking to get in at the beginning" of a new market.

Tony Hendrikse, of Wrightson Seeds' potato division in Christchurch, hoped to gauge how much interest there was in his company's products.

"There is no substitute for meeting face to face and you might just meet the right person," he said.

Before the representatives from each country held one-to-one talks, members of the Chinese delegation described their region.

It is bordered by Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (formerly Burma) and has a population 10 times larger than New Zealand's on a land area only slightly bigger.

A big portion of Yunnan's 41 million people work in an agricultural sector dominated by tobacco, tea, sugar and rubber cropping.

Yunnan industry has gross output of $50 billion, including $14 billion worth of agricultural production.

New Zealand's gross domestic product is about $100 billion and exports are $22 billion.

However, Yunnan's growth is rapidly outstripping its technological resources, which prompted the Downunder shopping trip.