"Covid has made it really difficult, which is why NZTE put their hand up for additional resources."
Norrie said NZTE has put more resources into Hawke's Bay to help the companies they work with grow and get through Covid-19 - working in partnership to use different tactics such as being able to "digitally pivot", or to assess their strategy and business plan.
Food and beverage is one of the region's strongest "internationally renowned" export industries, but manufacturing and technology are also very strong at the moment.
"Enormous" amounts of things manufactured in New Zealand are shipped out through the ports.
"The high-growth areas are often the smaller players and Hawke's Bay is in a good position for that."
Norrie would personally be "very excited" about the opportunity for the tech industry to grow.
"We have a business hub and we now have a tech hub.
"New Zealand has seen tech now become our fourth-biggest exporter, it's a large, growing area, we have a good stage for it and Hawke's Bay's well positioned for that, there's a lot of companies that come here."
He mentioned also meeting with a tech company that had intentionally relocated to Hawke's Bay to attract talent.
Frost Fans, a company that manufactures and exports fans that protect crops from frosts, is a combination of technology, manufacturing and horticulture.
The business manufactures the fans out of a fairly new facility in Twyford, and they are sent around the country and on shipping containers to their biggest market Australia, as well as Chile and European countries.
When the company started up, they were "NZ-centric" before expanding into the Australian market. Now markets in South America and Europe are being looked at.
South America has a similar climate to New Zealand, similar fruit crops are grown there and the firm's technology is transferable.
It's an enterprise Norrie says is a "really, really clever company [that is] right up the leading edge of world technology in this particular niche".
Frost Fans CEO Steve Haslett said the international reputation of New Zealand and NZTE has been beneficial in their export success.
"New Zealand has a very good reputation offshore as being innovators and having a good quality product. We certainly enjoy the reputation of NZTE when we are offshore, it helps us get into markets we [otherwise] may not get into as easily.
"New Zealand growers are well regarded offshore and the fact they're using this technology means growers in other parts of the world are keen to understand why it works for them and how it works.
"We think there is a considerable growth left for us in a global sense and we think we can be a global leader in the sector," Haslett said.
The business is now looking at expansion of their current premises, hoping to construct a second large building at the start of next year.
