Chengdu, China's panda capital, has no less than 16 million humans who are attracting the attention of New Zealand exporters (along with other western cities such as Xi'an, population 12 million). Because the focus for trade is often on Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, so-called tier 1 cities on the eastern seaboard, but that is changing.
More than 40 Kiwi businesses and tourism organisations recently attended "opening doors to the west" forums in Chengdu and Xi'anorganised by the China Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.
Even large New Zealand companies are small by Chinese standards, and it is important to understand the complexity of doing business there. Also, insiders know the competition in the west is as intense as anywhere else in China.
In China what you buy says something about your social status, the type of person you are, and because New Zealand brands are more expensive they need to "tell a strong sustainability story".
Food Basket chairwoman, Nicola O'Rourke who is also general manager of Lewis Road Creamery, says it is a difficult balancing act for exporters. On one hand, some Chinese consumers embrace sustainability, but they still want their imported produce to arrive in perfect condition, O'Rourke says. "I've seen people doing a great job of putting recycling in the right bins, but they're still not interested in reducing their consumption of plastic or polystyrene or whatever else is wrapping the fruit," she says.
Zespri's China spokesman, Ivan Kinsella says it is important that kiwifruit arrives undamaged, but mindful of environmental concerns, its packaging is recyclable and labels are compostable. As well as preventing physical damage to its fruit, Zespri is also assiduously protecting its intellectual property (IP). Kinsella says Chinese regulators have helped crack down on counterfeit branding.
Over the last three years they have taken more than 150 administrative and criminal actions over counterfeit Zespri product leading to the seizure of 13,000 trays of fake fruit and a million fake labels.
Kinsella says six people are in jail for Zespri counterfeit offences, including offenders operating a printing plant that made counterfeit packaging, and a group of traders in a major fruit wholesale market selling fake labels so local fruit could be passed off as imported.
"As China goes world-wide, they want to make sure their own backyard is clean, so they can also claim some IP protection when they go around the world."
Source: stuff.co.nz
