Over a decade ago, the Greenshell™ mussell industry made its first foray into China – with unpleasant results.
Some Chinese distributors duped consumers with counterfeit products leveraging off New Zealand’s strong reputation for quality and food safety. A small and muddy locally-grown green mussell was found packaged and sold in-market under the guise of New Zealand’s iconic Greenshell™. Distributors sprayed water over mussells and froze them to add weight so they could sell for more. Perhaps the biggest concern was the sale of cheap Chinese mussells under the New Zealand name and counterfeit branding into highly valued third markets, such as the United States.
It was difficult for Kiwi companies to address these issues so, with the added complication of intense competition between New Zealand exporters driving down the Greenshell™ sale price, exporters walked away from China and refocused on other markets.
It was eight years before sizeable volumes of New Zealand Greenshell™ mussells made a return to the Chinese market in 2010 – and these days, it’s much better news. As a market, China has more promise than most. It offers strong economic growth, an emerging ‘consumer class’ with a desire for quality imported foods, an improved regulatory regime (to limit the counterfeiters) and a history of appreciating Greenshell™ mussells.
Chinese consumers love our product and associate New Zealand with quality and food safety. The economic growth and associated consumption is phenomenal.The other significant difference is that several of the leading mussell producers are now working collaboratively under one brand – Pure. The shareholder companies in Pure New Zealand Greenshell mussells are Sanford Limited, Sealord, Kono NZ Limited and NZ Greenshell. This approach combines resources and shares the risk and it is the first marketing initiative of this nature and scale among mussell producers.
Chinese businesswoman Vivian Zhang helped establish the company while on secondment from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and has since become PNZGM’s Shanghai-based general manager. With a long history in business development for international New Zealand companies, Zhang brings crucial Chinese business acumen to the task of re‑establishing a significant Greenshell™ mussell market in China.
“This collaboration is a long-term business model looking for long-term profit. We are very confident in the future,” Zhang says. Pure is sold into the food service sector, targeting western chefs familiar with the Kiwi delicacy, and Asian chefs looking for interesting new flavours.
PNZGM is already a multi-million dollar export venture and the target for 2012 is to double sales. The price paid for PNZGM product has risen from US$4.50/kg to US$4.85/kg in the past year. This is critical to maintaining export returns when the New Zealand dollar remains strong.
Zhang says members of PNZGM visit customers in China. She believes this is the most important lesson for aspiring exporters: “People like to see Kiwi faces. It shows your commitment to the market.”
Gary Hooper has worked closely with PNZGM as marketing director of Aquaculture New Zealand – the industry body that represents Greenshell™ mussells, New Zealand salmon and farmed Pacific oysters.
“Chinese consumers love our product and associate New Zealand with quality and food safety. The economic growth and associated consumption is phenomenal.”
Hooper says the collaborative approach used by PNZGM has sparked interest in adapting the approach for channel and market development elsewhere. Other export sectors have also asked for information about the model to understand whether it might be applicable and useful.
