According to the CWT Connected Traveler Study, released today by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, business travelers are bringing more devices, and feel more productive as they are on the road conducting business. The survey of more than 1,900 business travelers found that travelers on average carry four different types of technology (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), with the smartphone being the one “travel tool they can’t live without,” as more than 80% of travelers across the globe rely on their phone to conduct business.
Global findings
With technology, most travelers (88%) believe travel is easier to navigate today. This has led a significant majority of travelers (78%) to seek opportunities to travel for work and nearly as many find business travel to be stimulating (72%). Today’s travelers are experienced and use that knowledge to plan their trips. More than half (55%) of travelers rely on prior travel experience while planning trips, in addition to hotel websites (54%) and airline websites (50%). Airline and hotel apps make up the bulk of app usage for travelers (45%) while map apps also see heavy use (41%).
“The business traveler can be so much more productive than even five years ago thanks to technology,” said Simon Nowroz, chief marketing officer, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. “Think about the advances where a business traveler used to have so much down time between a flight, taxi and hotel. Now, they can login and work while on the plane or wherever they happen to be. With the continued emergence of the tablet, as well as numerous apps, travelers don’t feel out of touch as they carry out business.”
According to the study, work-based relationships and productivity are strengthened through business travel. Nearly 9 in 10 business travelers (86%) said travel helped them build new knowledge and perspective, while 80% said business travel boosted their productivity. Additionally, more than 9 in 10 (93%) said that travel positives outweighed negatives when it comes to building and maintaining relationships at work, while nearly 8 in 10 (77%) say the same about their home lives.
Business travelers did have two key areas of concern.Two-thirds (67%) of travelers said they believe travel is safer today. However, nearly half (46%) remain concerned about their safety. This has led more travelers (68%) to “sometimes or always” purchase travel insurance. Business travelers also have difficulties maintaining routines and wellness. More than half of travelers (54%) say that their exercise and wellness habits are disrupted when they travel.
According to the study, as travelers connect with co-workers or family, they often use different methods. With family or friends, travelers chose calling (44%), Skype (24%) and text (17%) as their preferred communication methods. However, they connect with co-workers differently: email (44%), calling (24%) and texting (14%).
Regional differencesThere were similarities across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. However, APAC travelers felt more in control (84%) in being able to manage their responsibilities compared to Americas (76%) and EMEA (73%) travelers. Travelers from APAC (53%) were also more likely to say that travel took time away from other work, causing their co-workers to pick up some of the slack.
When it comes to personal relationships, around a quarter of travelers from the Americas felt that travel strained their relationship with their spouse or significant other (27%), more than their EMEA and APAC counterparts (22%). This is likely the reason that travelers in the Americas tried significantly harder to stay connected with family (50%) than APAC (31%) and EMEA (27%) travelers. APAC travelers were more likely to miss important events – with more than half (51%) missing at least two social events or occasions within the past 12 months compared to EMEA (44%) or Americas (42%) travelers.
“There are many variables that can make a business trip a success or a failure in the eyes of the traveler,” said Nowroz. “The easier we can make it for travelers to be organized, the more we help them have a better overall experience.”
About the surveyThe CWT Connected Traveler Study was created by Carlson Wagonlit Travel and conducted through Artemis Strategy Group March 30-April 24, 2017. Survey data was collected from more than 1,900 business travelers between the ages of 25-65 from the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States), EMEA (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and APAC (Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore). To participate in the study, business travelers were required to have made more than four business trips within the past 12 months. The purpose of this study is, to understand how business travelers stayed connected to both work and home while on the road.
About Carlson Wagonlit Travel Companies and governments rely on us to keep their people connected. We provide their travelers with a consumer-grade travel experience, combining innovative technology with our vast experience. Every day we look after enough travelers to fill almost 200 Boeing 747s and around 100,000 hotel rooms, and handle 95 corporate events. We have more than 18,000 people in nearly 150 countries, and in 2016 posted a total transaction volume of US$ 23 billion.
The Power Farming Euro Tour saw 63 New Zealand farmers, contractors and dealers hit Italy and Germany to see the latest tractor technologies from the SDF Group including production of the series 6, 7 and 9 Deutz Fahr. The Power Farming Euro Tour saw 63 New Zealand farmers, contractors and dealers hit Italy and Germany to see the latest tractor technologies from the SDF Group including production of the series 6, 7 and 9 Deutz Fahr.
While the All Blacks were well into planning their end-of-year tour, another group of Kiwis headed to the northern hemisphere in the middle of July during the European summer.
The Power Farming Euro Tour saw 63 New Zealand farmers, contractors and dealers hit Italy and Germany to see the latest tractor technologies from the SDF Group, which recently commissioned the most modern tractor factory in the world.
First stop was at the SDF headquarters in Treviglio, east of Milan in northern Italy.
This is the home of Deutz Fahr tractors up to 130hp and the capable and versatile Series 5 tractors. Guests could take in the heritage of a business that saw the Cassani brothers build their first diesel tractor in 1927, and the SAME DA, the world’s first 4WD tractor, launched in 1952.
On the production lines an upgrade is underway to produce automated guided vehicles (AGV) that carry the emerging tractors around the site and allow the factory to build up to 100 tractors each day.
Following a trip to a local dairy farm, which supplemented milk production with a large biogas plant, the party headed over the Alps to Munich and on to Lauingen, the home of Deutz Fahr.
Said to be the fastest growing brand in Europe, Deutz Fahr has recently commissioned a state-of-the art tractor assembly plant aptly named Deutz Fahr Land. In a building of 42,000sq.m on a site of 160,000sq.m and built at a cost of NZ$145 million, the mission is to build tractors right first time (RTF). A completed tractor leaves the production line every 12 minutes; the factory is said to be capable of producing up to 6000 units per annum on a one-shift basis.
Continue to read the full article here | A Rural News release || August 28, 2017 |||
The export value of New Zealand wine has reached a record high according to the 2017 Annual Report of New Zealand Winegrowers. Now valued at $1.66 billion, up 6% in June year end 2017, wine now stands as New Zealand’s fifth largest goods export.
Over the past two decades the wine industry has achieved average annual export growth of 17% a year states the Report. “With diversified markets and a strong upward trajectory, the industry is in good shape to achieve $2 billion of exports by 2020” said Steve Green, Chair of New Zealand Winegrowers.
According to the Report exports to the USA have lead the strong growth, passing $500 million for the first time (up 12%). New Zealand wine became the third most valuable wine import into the USA, behind only France and Italy.
Mr Green highlighted that in order to achieve continuing value growth, it is critical for the industry to maintain focus on protecting and enhancing its reputation as a distinctive, quality product. “Our premium reputation remains the greatest collective asset for New Zealand wine, and underlies the high average price our wine commands in global trade”.
Improved protection of New Zealand’s regional identities through the Geographical Indications (Wine and Spirits) Registration Act, and initiatives such as the launch of the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand Continuous Improvement extension programme will help enhance the world-class reputation of New Zealand wine as a premium and sustainable product, said Mr Green.
The 2017 Annual Report can be accessed here: https://www.nzwine.com/en/news-media/statistics-reports/new-zealand-winegrowers-annual-report/
| An NZWinegrowers release || August 28, 2017 |||
Complex issue of food imports pushes Brussels to bend its rules on not yet talking trade with Britain writes Simon Marks for Politico
Brexit negotiators are close to an agreement on a key trade issue that diplomats anticipate will be formally wrapped up at the latest round of Brexit talks next week.
With the two sides deadlocked on major stumbling blocks such as how to calculate the U.K.’s financial obligations to the bloc — the so-called Brexit bill — the rapid progress towards an early agreement is the first concrete result from the talks, which have been running since June.
The nearly-done deal on what happens to the EU’s massive food import quotas with other countries after Brexit, is all the more remarkable because it does not conform to the EU’s strict sequencing of the negotiations.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has been adamant that he will not discuss the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU until the talks make “sufficient progress” on three separation issues — the Brexit bill, the rights of EU citizens living in the U.K. post-Brexit and the Northern Irish border. The decision on whether to move on to the next stage will be taken by EU leaders at a European Council summit in October.
As POLITICO reported in July, although trade issues are meant to fall into phase two of the negotiations, the problem of reduced-tariff import quotas raises such a strategic headache for Brussels that EU negotiators have been willing to bend the rules and aim for an early agreement. Diplomats say that the matter has been agreed at a technical level and should be formally wrapped up during next week’s Brexit negotiations.
Lamb chops offer a perfect illustration of the EU’s problem after Brexit.
Tariff rate quotas (TRQs) are mechanisms under which the EU imports agreed tonnages of meat, sugar and grains from around the world with lower-than-usual duties. Brussels, which negotiates a common trade policy on behalf of all 28 states, has 124 TRQs with major agricultural exporters across the globe.
Lamb chops offer a perfect illustration of the EU’s problem after Brexit. Currently, the EU has an agreement to buy 230,000 tonnes of New Zealand’s lamb and goat meat each year, under a quota with reduced tariffs, but Britain traditionally buys 40 percent of this.
So what does the EU do after Brexit? If Brussels spreads the U.K.’s outsize quota among the remaining 27 countries, it will infuriate Europe’s own sheep farmers whose produce would have to compete on the market with the extra supply.
The alternative is to try to divide the 230,000 tonnes between the U.K. and the EU, but this also has legal risks. Big agricultural exporters from Latin America to Australasia could always argue that they lose some of their market access under the new division and could look to sue at the World Trade Organization.
The agreement set to be formally agreed this week is that Britain will carve out and inherit a substantial part, if not all, of its quotas under the EU arrangements, several diplomats said.
“The U.K. is leaving so they can take a bit with them,” said one senior EU official briefed on quota talks. The official added that calculations on the size of the U.K.’s quota will be based on recent trade patterns.
A big push has been made in recent week to seek “convergence on a joint approach” to TRQs with the U.K. so that trade partners in Geneva can be consulted, the official said. After next week’s Brexit talks, the EU is expected to produce an official position paper soon to be sent to the WTO in Geneva as early as next month.No worse off
The EU hopes that it can avoid a big legal showdown in Geneva by citing WTO rules that countries cannot sue as long as they can be shown to be “no worse off” under the new distribution of quotas between the U.K. and EU.
One diplomat also said that big food exporters would be looking to expand their exports to the U.K. when the country negotiates its so-called “schedules” at the WTO.
Schedules are essentially national passports for entering the global trading system and the U.K. will need to negotiate them in the aftermath of Brexit. These schedules will map out Britain’s obligations in terms of tariffs, subsidies and quotas, and negotiations in Geneva will give big exporters an opportunity to wrest bigger import concessions out of Britain.
Despite the imminent agreement on TRQs, there remain severe doubts on the EU that sufficient progress can be made before October.
Britain has been working on the quota question with the EU over recent months, and a spokesperson for Britain’s Department for International Trade said London was fully engaged in resolving the TRQ problem as part of WTO talks.
“In leaving the EU, we will need to update the terms of our WTO membership where, at present, our commitments are applied through the EU as a whole,” the spokesperson said. “The UK wants to ensure a smooth transition which minimizes the disruption to our trading relationships with other WTO Members and tariff rate quotas are one of the issues that we are discussing in a cooperative and transparent way with WTO members.”
Despite the imminent agreement on TRQs, there remain severe doubts on the EU that sufficient progress can be made before October. When asked by journalists at a briefing ahead of next week’s talks whether there was enough time to reach a deal on separation issues a senior EU official said: “We have not yet encountered a situation when lack of time will prevent us from advancing [discussions]. So far, it has been a lack of substance.”
| A Politico release || August 25, 2017 |||
The apple season will still be a bumper despite T&G Global's lower first-half-year profit forecast, says New Zealand Apples and Pears chief executive Alan Pollard and reported by FreshPlaza.
In a NZX announcement T&G Global reported a 49 per cent decrease in first-half-year profit, with poor weather contributing to harvest timing, quality, volume and margin.
"Inclement weather also affected third-party growing partners in New Zealand and internationally, leading to an overall decrease in the volume of fruit available," T&G Global said.
Profitability was also affected by the northern hemisphere where fruit was available for a longer period, delaying the switch to southern produce.
"These issues led to operating profit for the pipfruit division decreasing by $8 million from the same period last year."
Mr Pollard said that, for the whole season, it looked like it would be a similar result to last year nationwide.
"Last year was a record year, so if we do the same we equal our record - you can't complain about that," he said.
| A Fresh Plaza release | August 25, 2017 |||
It's time New Zealand seriously started to invest in promoting technology, the country’s third largest export industry and fastest growing sector of our economy, a leading New Zealand tech businessman says.
NZTech and FinTechNZ chair and Augen Software Group director Mitchell Pham says when Kiwis are in Asia and ask locals what they know about New Zealand, they generally say tourism, education, dairy, beef and lamb, high quality food products and other primary exports – never technology.
“It is highly unlikely that technology innovation or digital products would be mentioned, even though we have thousands of world class tech companies in this country,” he says.
“I want to see New Zealand technology promoted to the world just as we have made a huge effort over the past 20 years to globally feature tourism in this country.
“As a technology entrepreneur who has travelled extensively throughout Asia, the lack of knowledge of Kiwi tech ingenuity is a constant frustration for me. There's no place in the Asian region where I can use the NZ Inc. brand to help position a tech business as being from a well-known high-tech export nation.
“This is why NZTech is actively working to develop the NZ Tech Story in collaboration with Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and New Zealand Story to add being a high-tech nation as an integral part of the story we tell the world about ourselves. We can all participate and add to the development of the story via the NZ Tech Story Forum on LinkedIn.
“New Zealand has invested heavily in promoting education and tourism for decades, which is why we are so well known in Asia for these industries. It's time we make an on-going investment into promoting our fastest growing sector of our economy. The sooner the better, as it will take time to build the brand association between NZ and high-tech nation.”
Pham says the tech sector is not an island. As most Kiwi tech companies are still relatively new to business development in Asia, it would be smart and important for them to work alongside other New Zealand industry sectors which have been doing so for much longer and are therefore bigger, stronger and better known. Technology businesses are more relevant when promoted as part of the sectors that they serve.
Tourism, education, dairy, beef and lamb, fruit, wine, high quality food products, other primary exports, banking and engineering are just some of the sectors that have been developing in Asia for some time, he says.
“Critical mass is important for branding in Asia. So while we haven't got many large tech brands from New Zealand, such as Orion Health and Xero, we do have a large number of tech firms.
“NZ Techweek next year will be a huge opportunity to promote tech. International tech people will come to attend our events and we want to put NZ on the world tech map. Bringing together hundreds of events into the same week is better than spreading them across the calendar. The sheer number of Kiwis who come out to attend the events will also show critical mass and attract attention.
“We should also work smartly by tapping into relevant networks that are available to us. High-value and high-trust networks are full of influencers and connectors, so they are good channels to push the NZ tech story, such as KEA, New Zealand Asian Leaders (NZAL), ASEAN-NZ Business Council and similar networks connected in New Zealand and Asia.”
| A MakeLemonode release || August 28, 2017 |||
Waitomo Petrol's new station could push down prices at Palmerston North pumps
Young Hawke's Bay builder on his way to national competition
Five forestry deaths this year spurs new safety call
Mother of four shows it's never too late to upskill
Metco Engineering continues to compete with China to manufacture NZ goods
New French Festival celebrates rise in NZ business trade development
A group of leading New Zealand cherry growers have joined together to export a premium cherry line to the international markets starting in the 2017/18 season.
"Pure Pac consists of a group of 7 passionate Cherry Growers who all own orchards in the Cromwell Area Central Otago," explains Ross Kirk, Chief Executive of Hortinvest which has been contracted as Pure Pac's project manager and packhouse manager. "What makes Pure Pac unique is all the shareholders are grower suppliers. We will grow, pack and market the fruit directly to buyers in the international market. Pure Pac have engaged an experienced team to put together their packhouse, logistics and marketing of our cherries."
As a group they currently have 70ha in production and coming into production and this year they will plant an additional 20,000 trees.
2017-18 will be the first export season for Pure Pac, however the growers have been exporting via other packers/exporters. According to Kirk they got together and decided they would like to work directly with the international market and therefore decided to invest in a state of the art packing house which will be ready for the first cherries to be processed in December 2017.
The harvest starts prior to Christmas and will run till early February.
"We have several varieties. The key export ones are Samba, Lapin, Sweetheart, Staccato and Rainier. In the first season we expect to pack 450mt and over the next 4 years anticipate volumes increasing to 1000mt per annum," said Kirk. "We are growing the varieties that suit the Asian market, they are sweet, juicy and crunchie."
Pure Pac are working with Compac Engineering to put in the latest cherry grading technology, along with some technology which is imported from Italy and France to complete the packhouse set up. The new packhouse will be capable of handling 1200mt’s over the cherry season.
"We are very excited to be launching our two brands at Asia Fruit Logistica: Pure Gold and Gold Reserve," stated Kirk. "The difference in the brands is simply the box and brand design. The quality of the cherries will be the same high quality premium cherries in each box.
"We have very strong demand from Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, we are looking to expand throughout Asia, and we would like to also work with customers from India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan."
Pure Pac will be at Asia Fruit Logisitca as part of the New Zealand Country stand. The team, including some of the grower/directors will be there to meet with customers and discuss the group's cherries and the up coming Cherry season.
| A FreshPlaza release || August 23, 2017 |||
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
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
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