“We brought bigger ship services to New Zealand in 2016, and in the last 10 years ... Maers and Kotahi have shipped around 23 million tonnes of New Zealand cargo to markets all over the world, in most cases more reliably than what we’ve done in the past.”
As a result, Kotahi decided to extend the partnership to 2034, Ross said.
He explained why this was good news for Kiwi exporters, including Fonterra’s farmers.
“It means greater certainty around the export supply chain, it helps get Fonterra farmers’ milk and Silver Fern Farmers’ meat to their customers in a reliable and efficient way.”
It didn’t only benefit those two either, he said.
“We work with around 50 other significant primary exporters across pretty much all the sectors, dairy, meat, seafood, fresh produce, seeds, wool and even some timber products.”
Ross said Kotahi expected the agreement would give greater certainty and capability for $160 billion worth of New Zealand’s primary export products delivered globally.
Listen below:
That reliability was very important, he said.
“Unfortunately, global supply chain disruptions, whether they’re pandemics, geo-political, climate events - they’re just becoming the norm
“You only have to look at the last five years to see examples of all of those things and the problem is when things go wrong, history has shown New Zealand exports aren’t always anyone’s priority to be front of the queue for solving.”
Ross said Kotahi’s partnership had been tested and proven to maintain a resilient ocean freight supply chain, even in tough market conditions.
“During the Covid disruption, it was the extra capacity that Maersk provided [that] enabled us to manage Fonterra’s record export shipment without having to use much more expensive, non-containerised freight options, and at the same time, we were able to help a lot of other customers get their products to market when they had no other options.”
Ross said having surety around a reliable supply chain was “supercritical” in helping New Zealand exporters stay competitive on the world stage.
As for the next phase of the partnership, Ross said he was looking forward to strengthening New Zealand’s supply chain for the future.
Kotahi would do this through technology innovation, access to integrated logistics services and sustainability solutions, he said.
“We’ve developed a sustainability roadmap in the Maersk partnership to explore green fuel initiatives in the decarbonisation space.”
Ross said sustainable shipping would become increasingly important within the timeframe to 2034.
“For us, it’s all about making sure that for the next 10 years, we provide New Zealand farmers and exporters with the shipping networks that they need to get their products to the world in a reliable, sustainable and efficient way.”
