Shanghai. Photo / File
A Kiwi businessman says China's Covid zero policy is causing a logistical nightmare for Shanghai and warns New Zealand exporters to "be prepared" for the knock-on effects.
Hunter McGregor runs a Shanghai-based venison importing and distribution business.
For the past 29 days, he had been in full lockdown and allowed out only nine times to get a Covid test.
McGregor said Covid was starting to affect other areas of China, with partial lockdowns in Suzhou and Beijing, a trend he found worrying.
"Shanghai is the largest port in the world and it's not really operating that well at the moment," he told The Country's Rowena Duncum.
"If another large port in China gets locked down because of Covid, the logistics in and out of China are going to be a massive challenge for everybody."
While Shanghai's port had the technology and the people to continue running smoothly, it was let down by transport issues, McGregor said.
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"The logistics on the trucking side - that is not a five-minute fix. Even if Shanghai opens today, it would take months to get the logistics in and out of the port up and running."
This was even after truck drivers were offered double their current salaries, he said.
"It hasn't made a difference."
McGregor put this down to China's QR code system which he likened to New Zealand's traffic light Covid-19 Protection Framework.
A green code meant you were "good to go"; yellow indicated you'd been to a high-risk area and needed to pass a Covid test to get back to green; while red meant you'd had Covid, he said.
This was where it became tricky for trucking.
"So, if a truck driver from outside of Shanghai comes into the Shanghai port - their code would turn yellow - that would mean that they need to get a Covid test before they can get in to anywhere.
"Also - they've got no idea if they're actually going to be allowed back out of the city. They might be quarantined in Shanghai.
"So that's broken the logistics and everything's stopped. It's very difficult to get anything moving at the moment in Shanghai."
This was making it difficult to get anything from the east coast of China to inland China, McGregor said.
He had heard that cool stores were filling up on China's east coast and frozen and chilled products were not moving as they normally would.
"So, there's going to be some massive headwinds here soon in China, with regards to logistics."
This meant issues for New Zealand exporters as well, he warned.
"If the [port cities] of Qingdao, or Dalian go into a lockdown, it's going to be a massive, massive problem for everybody – especially the meat industry - because they send a lot of product into the north of China, through the ports there.
"If one of those port cities gets locked down, that'll be a massive challenge."
He predicted the next six months were going to be "pretty rough" in China and warned New Zealand exporters to "be prepared".
However, McGregor had a positive outlook for the long-term and believed China would return to a "new normal" at some point.
He even managed to look on the bright side of life, despite being in lockdown.
"The birds are singing in Shanghai - everyone can hear them because there's no traffic to drown them out."