New Zealand meat company Silver Fern Farms is trying a different approach as it moves into the higher end of the lamb trade in China.
The company will be selling branded retail lamb products online in Shanghai from March.
China has become New Zealand's single biggest export market for sheepmeat, mainly with lower-value commodity products. However, meat exporters are focusing more attention on the higher value end of the trade as well.
Silver Fern Farms will do that by using a New Zealand distribution and marketing service in China, NZ Focus, to sell on line through a TV shopping channel.
Silver Fern chief executive Keith Cooper said it followed a long period of getting established there.
"We've been in China for around 17 years in the commodity trade and over the (past) 18 months we've entered different sectors within the market, whether it be manufacturing trade for beef, whether it be further processing for lamb, and this is just another market segment we're approaching which is more the higher end," Mr Cooper said.
NZ Focus was run by ex-pat New Zealanders who had spent a lot of time understanding and researching the market, so when they went to the market with the new product, such as Silver Fern Farms retail packs, it had largely been stress tested and would be successful, he said.
Silver Fern Farms expected to follow-up the online marketing approach by selling lamb into high-end supermarkets in Shanghai.
