A trade mission comprising of Fijian exporters is expected to travel to New Zealand come February or March next year.
This will be done in partnership between the Pacific Trade and Invest (PT&I) from Auckland and the Fiji Export Council.
It is in a bid to build more export capability and knowledge for Fijian exporters in New Zealand markets.
Around 40 Fijian business owners and SMEs, who are potential and existing exporters, were part of the second series of workshops of the 2016 Path to Market (P2M) programme at the Tanoa Plaza Hotel in Suva on Thursday.
The workshop participants were accompanied by a delegation of close to 24 people including a three-member team of PT&I NZ and a seasoned trade consultant here as part of a business mission.
The Business Mission was organised by the New Zealand Fiji Business Council.
PT&I Trade Commissioner, Michael Greenslade, said their ultimate goal was to take a trade mission from this group of Fijian companies to New Zealand.
“It’s part of our visit this week. We also met with the companies that went on a trade mission earlier in March with us and we’re just checking with them in terms of their sales and the support they require from us in market,” he said.
“Those companies have all made sales from the previous missions.”
Mr Greenslade said the trade mission would need to consist of export-capable companies with a product and with a potential to take an order.
“Last year was the first time we trialled it. Six came over for the trade mission. And we had four countries come together to New Zealand which included Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Samoa,” he said.
“This year we are lucky to have eight countries. So we are going to have a good number of exporters come and to be fair, the real opportunity is within that group of companies.”
Change of perspective
Kava exporter Praveen Narayan, who is the managing director of Green Gold Kava, said the P2M workshop was a once in a lifetime workshop.
“This workshop really changed my perspective as a small exporter now to gaining more exposure overseas,” he said.
Mr Narayan said he was lucky to be part of the team that went to the Pasifika Festival in Auckland in March this year.
“There we did really great. My company managed to get a very good distributor in NZ,” he said.
Meanwhile, Fiji Export Council chief executive officer Jone Cavubati said the P2M workshop was timely and quite relevant.
“The Fiji Export Council continues to receive a lot of enquiries from people aspiring to export but they are not ready,” he said.
“This type of workshop is really how we can assess the business development and that they are aware of how to export.
“We are targeting potential exporters, new exporters and we have the matured exporters and hope that they can learn from each other.”
The PT&I is the economic development agency of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat engaged in trade and investment promotion in Pacific Island Forum countries.
Source: Fiji SunOnline
July 2, 2016 - A single-minded focus on effectiveness, efficiency and innovation across all aspects of Fonterra’s winter maintenance programme is delivering savings for the Co-operative as it gets match-fit for spring.
Director of NZ Manufacturing Mark Leslie said this “winter shut” period is an important time of year for manufacturing teams as all assets across Fonterra’s network of sites are fine-tuned to ensure they are ready for the season ahead.
“Each year we process around 18 billion litres of milk, with the bulk of this carried out in the spring months. The work we’re doing now will help us get match-fit for that peak period.”
Mr Leslie says the goal for manufacturing teams in this year’s winter shut has been finding more effective and efficient ways to maintain sites for the coming season.
“Together, Fonterra and industry are focused on ensuring we can produce quality product for our customers and support farmers under a constrained milk price.
“We have always been efficient in our maintenance projects, so the challenge this year was to come up with new and innovative ways to do things better, faster and smarter.”
Hundreds of Fonterra manufacturing site staff are taking part in the annual winter work, with more than 500 projects currently underway around the country, ranging from major capital works to minor overhauls.
Winter Shutdown Manager at Te Rapa Blair Bond puts the improvements down to an ongoing “owner’s mindset” across the manufacturing teams.
“Every person on our team is on the same page. We treat the assets as if we were their owners – putting ourselves in our farmers’ shoes and thinking about how we can do things more effectively and drop our bottom line.”
This work during the winter shut has also led to innovative thinking that will change the way we process milk during the milking season.
Mr Bond gives the example of our D4 evaporator – which evaporates water out of the milk to then be turned into powder. The team came up with an innovative way of splitting the process into stages, which will allow the evaporator to run 6 per cent longer meaning more milk can be processed each day.
Mr Bond adds: “It’s year-round for us. Throughout the entire year we’re talking to other sites about what worked for them and leveraging our collective strength to help our Co-operative deliver.”
He explains the Te Rapa team has adopted a year-round asset care approach for the maintenance and servicing of equipment.
“Constant monitoring of our equipment to ensure it’s always in top nick means we’re saving time and money during our winter shut – something our farmers will appreciate.”
A press release from Fonterra June 2, 2016
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Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
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Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242