Pacific products in News Zealand need more recognition

Transcript

Pacific business people have gathered in Auckland as part of efforts to find ways to boost export opportunities for a wider range of Pacific Islands products.

The Pacific Wave Conference at Sky City brought together business success stories with stakeholders like New Zealand government officials, who offered help to gain access to New Zealand markets.

Our reporter Alex Perrottet went along.

The message from Pacific trade partners is clear - Pacific brands and products have appeal, but the import and export ratio for New Zealand is still very lopsided. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Trade Commissioner Michael Greenslade says just over $100m dollars of Pacific imports is not enough and now is an opportune time for the Pacific to boost its exports. New Zealand's new Pacific Economic Ambassador, Shane Jones, says it's about networking with the right people.

SHANE JONES: We know there are challenges sustaining micro-enterprises, and then enabling them to gain access to bigger markets.  Some of them will only service the tourism industry in their own island states. Others should be encouraged, and we should be encouraging them, to bring their produce into New Zealand, and ensure that they hook up with the right partners.

Jennifer Boggiss, the co-founder and director of one success story, Heilala Vanilla, says apart from capital and having a good team of people, she says a unique selling point is crucial.

JENNIFER BOGGISS: When you go into a global market and there's ten vanillas on the shelves, why are they going to pick up yours, so you need to have some sort of unique point of difference about any product that comes from the Pacific.

But that unique selling point is sometimes under threat. Just last week, the Samoan government sent a complaint to the New Zealand Commerce Commission, over coconut cream from Thailand on New Zealand shelves using Samoan words and imagery that Samoa said was misleading consumers, and undercutting Samoan businesses. Laulu Mac Leauanae, the CEO of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, which initiated the True Pacific Brand project, says the initiative needs more scope and has been too limited over the past three years but could grow into a powerful regional brand that distinguishes Pacific products. Laulu says PCF is looking to house the True Pacific Brand in the Pacific and get more products on board. Meanwhile, Jennifer Boggiss says she wants Heilala Vanilla to be the recognised brand of Tonga, as Fiji Water is to Fiji, and bit by bit this will provide local growth.

JENNIFER BOGGIS: We brought 45 kilos back in 2005 and then last year we brought back four and a half tonnes so not only now do we have our plantation but we're really working with the other growers in Tonga to really reinvigorate the Tongan vanilla industry, so it will be great for Tonga.

Natures Way Cooperative is a Fiji-based company that exports diverse crops like breadfruit to New Zealand. The CEO, Michael Finau Brown, says the breadfruit serves a growing demand, mainly from Auckland's Samoan population, and other fruit and vegetables such as papaya and pineapple could also be exported to help the local industry recover from a downturn in the global sugar price.

MICHAEL FINAU BROWN: Because of the demise of the sugar industry we need to diversify and look at other livelihoods in terms of crops and this is where we want to encourage people to get into breadfruit, pineapples, watermelons, and other commodities, which will create job opportunities for people in the rural areas.

The New Zealand and Pacific award-winning chef Robert Oliver says the Pacific has plenty to share and his television show, Real Pasifik, is all about giving confidence to local chefs to showcase the quality of local cuisine. But he says in countries like Fiji, where he was recently sampling five-star gourmet meals made in villages, competing with the global marketers of unhealthy foods is difficult.

ROBERT OLIVER: The greater Fijian community is being deluged with marketing that little Pacific countries can't even match the marketing budgets of those, their whole economies are not even as big as some of those marketing companies.

Robert Oliver says he is excited about plans for a Pacific restaurant in downtown Auckland, the world's biggest Pacific city, which will help popularise Pacific cuisine in New Zealand, and not just among Pacific people.