Seafood industry push for China

Prime Minister John Key is urging the seafood industry to "storm through" the door into China, claiming the potential to sell products there is "almost limitless".

Mr Key was speaking at the opening of the Seafood Industry Council's annual conference at Te Papa yesterday, highlighting the opportunity for "exponential" growth in exports to China.

Last year China overtook the United States to become New Zealand's second-largest trading partner, with exports of $10 billion. The target for New Zealand should be for the figure to grow to $20b "in a reasonably quick time", Mr Key said.

"It's absolutely possible; you've got 1.3 billion people who are getting wealthier by the day, and they want to consume things, and at the forefront of that is food."

New Zealand has already signed a free trade agreement with China and is working on others, but Mr Key said this would not in itself guarantee business, urging the seafood industry to spot the potential.

"We can open the door, but we can't force you to storm through it; the only way we can do it is if industry and individual companies have a sense of opportunity there – and the opportunities are absolutely huge," Mr Key said.

"The market for wine and food in China is almost limitless, so the opportunities are huge by any definition."

Mr Key also vowed to drive through reforms in the aquaculture sector, with the current legislation blamed for no new space for fish farms to be set aside since 2004.

"We know it's an industry that could be worth a billion dollars [a year], we know you've had a moratorium and legislation that hasn't worked.

"We know there is enormous consumer demand, you look at that situation and say by any definition aquaculture should be a big producer in the New Zealand economy and we have to deliver on that."

Cameron Bagrie, the chief economist at ANZ, said New Zealand faced a decade of "profound economic change" moving from a model of spending-fuelled growth to spending once earnings are in.

The seafood industry could be a key part of the economic rebalancing because of New Zealand's large exclusive economic zone, the potential for growth through aquaculture and vast potential demand from Asia.

"If you're looking for sectors to get us there, seafood is going to be one of the horses to back, there is a very strong medium-term story for that sector," Mr Bagrie said.

- © Fairfax NZ News