Added value vital for Hawke's Bay

More production will result in less growth for Hawke's Bay because land is a finite resource, says New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's (NZTE) chief executive Peter Chrisp.
Mr Chrisp was in Hawke's Bay on Tuesday for the opening of NZTE's office in Ahuriri.
"Our food basket is capped by what the land can produce," he said. "You can increase your productivity by about 2 per cent a year but the overall production you get from the country is capped."
To maintain production of plain commodities would mean New Zealand could compete only on price, difficult when so far from world markets, he said.
"Growth needs to come from value added, branded, differentiated food and beverage products. It's a real sweet spot for this region here - you should be able to get involved. There is a lot of specialised manufacturing that has to follow that as well.
"Two of the companies we are visiting are good examples. First Light produce wagyu beef - they have hit a sweet spot in terms of a high margin value-added beef product and then there is Frost Fans, who are a high-technology company but also linked to the land.
"So if we can just help these kinds of innovative companies grow then this region is in a good position globally."
NZTE was a government organisation that helped companies expand, with the focus on exports.
"There are two primary parts of the operation. There are 250 people offshore in 38 offices around the world and 350 people in New Zealand.
"The whole idea is that we are a small-scale country a long way from its markets, so our organisation exists basically to take these New Zealand companies and grow them into international companies."
Mr Chrisp was originally a trade union official and saw no differentiation between management and unions, especially when the blanket of protectionism was stripped from New Zealand.
"I was working for the union from the late 1980s. I was there five years and New Zealand lost 50,000 manufacturing jobs in the initial round of deregulation. At that time unions and employers were co-operating as hard as they could to keep companies in New Zealand, whether it was Fisher and Paykel or Printpac UEB, we were just basically working with companies over how to up the quality, how to up the skills. What we were united by then was the common enemy, international competition."
NZTE had a menu of services to assist growth, with 40 Hawke's Bay companies already assisted. Eight were being helped with Lean Manufacturing systems.
He said NZTE could cope with government cuts to its funding.
"Whether you are public or private sector you should be focused on doing more for less. We used to disperse $85 million and now disperse $30 million worth of funds, but it's more focused now.
"We deal with fewer companies but have bigger hits."