Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is now in Japan for her first foreign trip since the start of the pandemic, after visiting Singapore earlier in the week. She attended an event by kiwifruit marketing company Zespri to open the kiwifruit season in Japan.
Zespri has a monopoly on kiwifruit exports from New Zealand (except for in Australia) and a huge market in Japan, with $600 million in exports in 2021. Zespri say it is generally a $750m market.
Ardern told Japanese media she expected the industry to grow in Japan with the introduction of the red kiwifruit variety. Ardern also noted that her grandparents used to grow kiwifruit.
Japan is New Zealand's fourth-largest trading partner, and is the largest economy in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement New Zealand signed in 2018. Ardern will spend Thursday and Friday in Japan before leaving on Saturday. She will meet with Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday evening.
Source: stuff.co.nz
