New Zealand still has a "great opportunity" to sell more food products in China, a visiting academic says.
“I think the food industry right now is huge because it is a necessity for every family. However, this is the industry that Chinese companies do the worst job in the world at," Associate Professor Zheng Yuhuang of Beijing's Tsinghua University said in Auckland.
"The situation in China is, almost no food is safe. People are worried about this. Even from the most basic food like infant formula…
“Part of the reason is the Chinese Government does not do a good job – they don’t really monitor food safety seriously," Zheng said.
He said that China used to have about nine government departments monitoring food safety simultaneously.
“But we know that when there are more than one government agencies monitoring this simultaneously then nobody is taking this as the real duty."
Even with new laws more recently in place food safety was still a big issue, so this represent a big opportunity for New Zealand.
There were plenty of people in China wealthy enough to afford relatively expensive imported food products. “They do have the money but now they don’t have the good quality products.”
Zheng made his comments at the 3rd China Symposium 2013 co-hosted by the New Zealand China Trade Association, New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre and New Zealand Asia Institute.
He joked: “When I come here a lot of my friends asked me if I might be able to bring back some infant formula.
“They do have this association. They think the food here is safe.”
New Zealand does sell large quantities of milk powder and infant formula in China as part of rapidly growing trade with the country that is likely to see China usurp Australia as this country's largest trading partner by the end of the year. NZ's trading with China is running ahead of its trading with Australia in the year to date.
Another speaker at the symposium Patrick Chovanec, who is chief strategist at New York-based Silvercrest Asset Management and a former Professor of Practice at Tsinghua University, said China offered significant opportunities in the areas of logistics, the consumer economy - including food, agriculture, healthcare and other services.
He said that China was likely facing a significant shift away from industries that have boomed in recent times, such as construction, heavy equipment, steel making and ship building. These industries now faced increasing over-capacity and competition.
“I think China faces a significant and disruptive economic transition in the years ahead away from its reliance on very investment heavy sectors.”
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