KIBBUTZ NAAN, ISRAEL - New Zealand farmers will be able to purchase Israeli state-of-the-art drip and sprinkler equipment across the Tasman when NaanDan Irrigation Ltd launches its sales and marketing office in Melbourne next month.
The firm recently contracted a $1.5 million sale through its New Zealand distributor Pyne Gould Guinness
(PGG) and will market over the next year some 100,000 units of its Flipper impact sprinkler heads.
The heads were designed for vineyard irrigation and frost control for viticulturists.
The Israeli system, which offers a flow range of up to 12m, was flexible and compatible with locally produced irrigation hose piping and stands.
However, it differed in function from local sprinkler systems which were in wide use in paddock crop farm irrigation.
NaanDan's Asian and Pacific marketing director, Tovi Rotem, said New Zealand was one of the firm's significant and advanced agricultural markets.
"...we already supply sheep and dairy farmers and wine growers with a broad range of sophisticated irrigation systems, piping and equipment that help to compensate sparse regional rains and overcome seasonal frost," he said.
"We expect to progressively boost our sales to this country in the coming years."
Mr Rotem would move with his family to Melbourne next month to become the inaugural production, marketing and sales director of NaanDan's Australian subsidiary for the Asian-Pacific region.
NaanDan's financial turnover in Australia in the current year amounts to $5.4m.
NaanDan chief executive David Naam said after the firm expanded to Australia, it hoped to increase its sales throughout the region by 300 per cent over the next three years.
- NZPA
