JR’s Orchards, writes Nicola Watson for www.freshplaza.com  is the only large scale, export orchard left in the Wellington area and is situated in the heart of the beautiful Wairarapa, in Greytown.

"Our region's climate of hot days and cold nights gives our fruit outstanding pressures and brix, making our apples highly desirable to all markets," said Jamiee Burns from the company. "In the past 5 years we have planted in excess of 35,000 trees including the new “Sunglow” Red Delicious which is attracting a lot of interest due to its sweet taste and storage compatibilities."

JR's are planting another 5,000 trees this winter, mainly Royal Gala and High Colour Braeburn. "We are looking to grow our markets in Europe and Asia as we feel our variety mix of Royal Gala, Braeburn, Fuji, Sunglow, Pacific Rose and European Pears will be perfect for these markets. We also export to the Middle East market and currently supply fruit into Lidl and Aldi in Europe."

Although netting is not common among New Zealand apples growers, JR's have 90% of their orchards protected. "We have the largest single netting structure for apples and pears in New Zealand and we will continue to develop until we are 100% covered," explains Jamiee.

"The netting has many benefits in enhancing our fruit quality and fruit finish as it has created its own micro climate under the nets. Our crop is protected from birds, insects, wind and hail."

The first netting was erected in 2007 and according to Jamiee, it has been a fantastic investment. "We have seen a 30% increase in production due to the netting. This is achieved by having a cleaner, pest free product and healthier trees."

JR's are a stand-alone business with no other grower supply base. Everything is marketed under the ECCO brand is 100% own fruit. "We have our own packhouse and coolstores with the capacity to Smartfresh 2,000 bins per day. We load all containers onsite and are part of New Zealand's Secure Exporters Program. This allows our export product to enter overseas markets freely without the need for additional offshore customs inspections."

The company has also invested in a new Compac grader that allows them to size, colour band, defect sort and optimise pack weight to ensure accuracy of the product.

"Our philosophy and vision is to grow excellent quality fruit in a sustainable way, while showing respect for our environment. We have twice entered the New Zealand Ballance Environmental Awards and in 2009 won the Gallagher Innovation Award. In 2015 we entered again and won the 2015 Hill Laboratories Harvest Award, 2015 Waterforce Integrated Management Award and 2015 Massey University Innovation Award, said Jamiee proudly.

The company is accredited to BRC, Global Gap + GRASP, Sedex Registered and follow the New Zealand Pipfuit Apple Futures Program to ensure we can deliver an excellent product and meet all our Importers stringent MRL standards required by our markets.

| A FreshPlaza release  ||  August 31,  2017   |||

TRAVERSE CITY — Devices to help farmers get over, around and through orchards and vineyards were on display during the Northwest Michigan Horticultural Research Center's annual open house last week.

Seven agricultural equipment vendors — three from the area — sprawled out down the hill from the Research Center office and conference building.

One area vendor, Herman's Mobile Service from Suttons Bay, towered over the other companies.

Herman's displayed a mobile frost fan that extends 28 feet into the air. Built by Tow and Blow in New Zealand, the device is powered by a diesel engine.

"This machine will cover 11 acres," said owner Pat Herman. "The new model that is coming in now are 14 acres. Diesel engine. They're quiet, like a lawn mower. The biggest thing with these is portability. You can move them from one crop to another or put them away when you're done with them."

Herman said permanent frost fans, while covering more acreage, also burn more fuel.

"We're going to have slightly less coverage than them, maybe one to two acres," he said. "But the other thing we have going is we burn about a gallon and a quarter of fuel an hour where those are going to burn about 13. It's a big difference."

The mobile frost fans also feature a temperature-controlled start. Herman said the $37,000 price tag is "very comparable to the stationary ones."

Herman said his company has been carrying the product for three years. He said Herman's Mobile Service sells many of the mobile units in Ohio, New York and Wisconsin.

| A RecordEagle release  ||  August 31,  2017   |||

"Double the amount of pallets fit onto a container ship" writes Nele Moorthamers Marketing Manager Europe ZESPRI International ( Europe) NV for FreshPlaza. A few months ago Seatrade introduced a new line from New Zealand. "Our kiwis now go to Belgium with the Seatrade Blue," says Nele Moorthamers of Zespri Europe. "This container ship goes to Zeebrugge via Peru and the US, arriving at the BNFW terminal, where the kiwis are unloaded. It will be a set line that will arrive at Zeebrugge every 10 days. The first ship from the new line arrived on August 28. Around 40% of the shipment is SunGold and the rest is Green and Organic kiwi fruit."

ContainersIt's the first time that Zespri has transported its kiwis in 40 foot containers. " 

In the past the kiwis arrived in Zeebrugge in reefer ships, where the entire deck was filled with pallets of kiwi fruit. The line Color Carrier, uses cooled container ships. Every container has around 20 pallets of kiwis and are individually cooled. It mainly has an impact on loading and unloading the ships," she explains.

Double the volume"The container ship has a much larger capacity. In the past we received around 5,000 pallets through a reefer ship and there are 10,060 pallets on the ship that arrived on Monday. That's more than double. The transit time is now a few days longer than with the reefer ships, as this line has extra stops."

Nele says that the season has been satisfactory so far. "We still have around six weeks of sales for New Zealand SunGold, before we seamlessly move to European SunGold. The season for Green is more difficult, as the demand is large and the supply on the market is quite limited."

 | A FreshPlaza release  ||  August 30,  2017   |||

KUCHING: New Zealand is keen to further enhance its ties with Sarawak, especially in the areas of education and tourism.

Its High Commissioner in Malaysia Dr John Subritzky said given there are many Malaysians coming to New Zealand to study, education is something that his country and Sarawak can work on a lot more.

He said tourism between Malaysia and New Zealand had also grown a lot, where many New Zealand tourists are coming to Malaysia and many Malaysian tourists, including Sarawakians, are going to New Zealand.

Subritzky said the purpose of his visit to Sarawak is to meet a wide range of government, business and political leaders, exploring how New Zealand and Sarawak are able to further enhance their ties, especially in areas such as trade, cultural and indigenous links aside from education and tourism.

“Sarawak and New Zealand share particularly warm links through the Colombo Plan and the deployment of New Zealand defence force personnel in support of Sarawak’s defence during the Confrontation.

“Indeed, my visit will coincide with a visit to Kuching of New Zealand veterans from the Emergency and Confrontation conflicts, probably the last visit they will do as a group to Malaysia,” he said after paying a courtesy call on Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office (Integrity and Ombudsman) Datuk Talib Zulpilip at the latter’s office here yesterday.

Subritzky said he was glad to have the opportunity to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the relationship between New Zealand and Sarawak, and Malaysia as a whole.

He noted that New Zealand and Malaysia shared an enduring friendship based on strong political, economic, education and tourism links.

Subritzky is here for an official visit until tomorrow.

While here, he is scheduled to pay courtesy calls on State Secretary Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Morshidi Abdul Ghani, Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing today (Aug 29).

| A Borneo Post release  ||  August 29,  2017   |||

Yang Shuang reports  for Fresh Plaza that as of August 22, one of the leading Chinese fruit companies, Fruit Day, and JD.com have officially started to sell persimmons from New Zealand. Their platform is one of the first to sell New Zealand's persimmons in China. After 12 years of negotiations the first batch has finally arrived on the Chinese market.

Last year, in May, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ) published the "Inspection and Quarantine Administration requirements for New Zealand persimmon and Turkish cherries." On May 27, products that fulfilled these conditions of, were approved to be imported to China. This year, on July 20, China's AQSIQ has once again updated the list of New Zealand persimmon exporters who have been allowed to export New Zealand persimmon onto the Chinese market.

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise agency trade commissioner Damon Paling said: "I am delighted that New Zealand's crunchy persimmon will be able to enter China for the first time this summer. The New Zealand fruit is tastier than ordinary persimmon - it's sweet and delicious. I hope that Chinese consumers will like it."

Crunchy persimmon growing on plantation

Fruitday imported this first batch from a company called 'First'. It actually was the 'first' company to have its products approved by China's AQSIQ. First's crunchy persimmon plantation is situated on the east coast of New Zealand, in Gisborne. But it's not only the unique environment that makes persimmons from First so good, but also a special V-planting technology, which helps to reduce the negative impact of insects. This technology also lets more sunlight reach the fruits, so they can become even sweeter.

Zhao Guozhang, co-founder of Fruitday, said: "We are very confident about our sources of supply. Our purchasing mission has traveled all over the world to find the best fruits. New Zealand combines perfect natural conditions with well-developed agricultural technologies. Their products earned their customers the highest appreciation. New Zealand is a very important source of supply for us. It has a lot of world-famous farmers, brands and associates who are our indispensable fruit partners.

Fruitday is a pioneer and an innovator. Since it's very foundation Fruitday has been promoting high quality fruits from New Zealand. In the last eight years, we've made a lot of new fruits available on China's market. For example: Zespri Sungold kiwifruits, Zespri Green kiwifruits, Envy apples, Queen Rose apples, New Zealand honey pears and a lot of other fruits that have never been sold in China before. Fruit Day is still working hard to bring even more high quality fruits and to gain more trust from Chinese government officials. Being a company that introduces new kinds of fruits to the Chinese market, Fruit Day have become the number one choice for their partners.

About Fruit DayFruitday was founded in 2009. It is a new kind of food enterprise and one of the leaders on the market. Fruit Day works with the food suppliers all over the world. The company has an App for on-line sales and also uses off-line channels of distribution, which allows it to satisfy as many customers as possible. Fruit Day have their own direct sales platform, private cold storage and cold chain logistics.

| A FreshPlaza 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   |||

Writes Allan Golombek  a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group for Real Clear Markets. 

The scene in the Hamburg supermarket was stark. Row after row of empty shelves, dotted by a few products made domestically. Edeka supermarkets, the largest supermarket chain in Germany, emptied one store of every last imported good on a weekend. They were making a point. Rather than a protest against openness and diversity, it was an object lesson in the benefits we all derive from those two values. It was a defense of tolerance, but also a reminder that openness to goods and services, people and ideas is not just something we engage in to help others, but to help ourselves, directly and every day.

It is not surprising that this case for openness was made in Hamburg, a city that used to serve as a major port of departure for German immigrants to the United States, and the place widely believed to be responsible for the development of the hamburger, one of many foreign dishes that achieved enormous international popularity. Stripping the shelves of foreign-made products didn’t just demonstrate the advantage of drawing people from around the world through liberal immigration policies, as valuable as that is. It also illustrated the indispensable advantage of being free to import, utilizing resources and skills that can be found around the globe. While pro-trade politicians often try to sell free trade as a way of encouraging exports to create jobs, far more important is the fact that it makes it possible to import, enhancing choice – which is the economic purpose of working in the first place..

The ghost town image of the Edeka supermarket helped make it clear just how much we benefit from imports, of food and other goods, and how important they are to us. In the United States, the amount of imported food continues to increase as Americans consume more products that are either not locally available or not grown fast enough to meet demand. Americans import a wide variety of foods, literally from fish to nuts. Some are not grown in the United States, such as bananas and coffee. Many are made a lot more cheaply in other countries. Many are seasonal, and many new entirely to Americans (as pizza, bagels and felafel once were). Rather than a source of economic decline, two of the driving forces behind the growth of food imports are the desire to cut back on the cost of one’s food budget, and rising incomes spurring a wider desire for choice. Next time you sit down to a meal or grab a snack, ask yourself if it would be available to you if it wasn’t for global trade. No lamb from New Zealand, salmon from Norway, or pasta from Italy.

And next time you hear a politician criticize NAFTA, bear this in mind: The two largest sources of agricultural imports to the United States are its trading partners, Mexico and Canada. That includes most sugar and tropical products, such as coffee, cocoa, and rubber, and animals and animal products, including beef and veal. If your doctor has told you to eat your veggies, bear in mind that Mexico dominates vegetables imported into the United States, supplying peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, pinto beans, broccoli, and cabbage to name a few. Canada supplies carrots, cauliflower, asparagus, mushrooms and potatoes. NAFTA is good for you, physically as well as economically. And if you’re worried about the trade deficit with China, bear in mind that it includes billions of dollars worth of seafood each year, including farm-grown tilapia, shrimp, salmon and catfish.

The value of eating globally, not locally, undermines the core arguments of a growing anti-trade movement: Locavorism, which is based on the flawed premise that a diet of locally grown food offers environmental, economic and social benefits. In fact, the opportunity to import food extends our food supply chain, enhances competition and choice, delivers lower prices, and provides greater variety – the spice of life, literally as well as figuratively.

Over the years, we have been shaping a global diet. The brief removal of imported food from a supermarket’s shelf in Hamburg demonstrates its economic and cultural value to us.

Allan Golombek is a Senior Director at the White House Writers Group.

| A RealClearMarkets release  ||  August 25,  2017   |||

Silver Fern Farms has launched a large-scale China chilled pilot with the first sea-freight container shipment of chilled beef as well as multiple air-freight orders of beef and lamb set for customers across China.

The pilot is part of a six-month trial negotiated by the government to test chilled red meat access into the China market. While small-volume air-freight product has been sent into market, it is understood that this is the first sea-freight container to test the market says Silver Fern Farms GM Sales Grant Howie.

"It is important that during this trial period we test the market’s protocols and supply chain for chilled meat at sea-ports as well as via air-freight," Mr Howie says.

"With chilled product in China we need to test the process at scale which is why we have worked with one of our customers to take a full 20ft container of chilled product."

The first sea-freight container leaves New Zealand this week and is due to arrive into China in early September.

"Our relationship with Shanghai Maling has helped facilitate this sea-freight order. We are working with one of Shanghai Maling’s subsidiaries who will distribute Silver Fern Farms chilled beef to a number of its supermarkets in and around Shanghai.

"The cuts they are taking are important. They are primarily secondary cuts of prime Beef - cuts that would otherwise have been sold frozen at lower prices. They have the capability to position these traditional Chinese cuts at a premium in supermarkets."

Silver Fern Farms is New Zealand’s largest meat exporter to China, having achieved $316m of sales to the region in 2016. All of the product entered the market in frozen form.

Silver Fern Farms is also testing protocols for small-scale air-freight orders of beef into key food service distributors who service high-end restaurants and hotels in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen and an airfreight order for lamb cuts into a major multi-national high-end supermarket chain.

"For the past 2 years we have been busy developing the premium food service market with our Eating Quality (EQ) Graded Silver Fern Farms Reserve Beef as a frozen product. Our Reserve and Angus Beef frozen programmes are aged for 21 days back in New Zealand before being shipped frozen. Now that we have the ability to ship chilled, that ageing can now occur as it is shipped to China."

"This is a complex large scale chilled pilot to test a variety of market entry options as well as a range of products. We have two air-freight orders destined for our food service customers in Shanghai. They have ordered our value added Silver Fern Farms Reserve Beef, and our food service chilled prime beef product in primary and secondary cut form. They are taking steak cuts, our Silver Fern Farms Reserve oyster blade and rump caps."

"We have also partnered with a major multi-national high-end supermarket chain for an order of lamb cuts, including premium lamb racks. We look forward to further orders at scale so we can test sea-freight container orders once the new season lamb production comes on in coming months."

| A SilverFern Farms release  ||  August 23, 2017   |||

National is promising to deliver New Zealand's boldest-ever trade push if it wins the election, creating "shiploads of jobs" and giving the economy a multi-billion dollar boost.

Trade spokesman Todd McClay says a National-led government will work to unlock markets with 2.5 billion new consumers for the benefit of large and small exporters in every region.

"This new trade access will create shiploads of jobs and be worth billions of dollars to our economy and businesses across the country," he said on Tuesday.

Most of the initiatives Mr McClay is committing to following through have already been announced and some, including TPP11, are under negotiation.

National leader Bill English, who was with Mr McClay to make the announcement in Auckland, said it was the first time the entire list of trade initiatives had been brought together.

"We hope to have significant success to help the export sector," he said.

"Labour wants to renegotiate TPP11 - if that happened, it would mean the end of it."

The list of targets for "high-quality and comprehensive" free trade agreements include:

   * The European Union

   * The United Kingdom (following Brexit)

   * Sri Lanka

   * Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay & Uruguay

Negotiations to be completed are:

   * The Trans Pacific Partnership 11

   * Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru (The Pacific Alliance)

Existing agreements to be upgraded with:

   * China

   * Singapore

   * The Association of South East Asian Nations.

Mr McClay told reporters the European Union FTA negotiations could start later this year and he wanted to complete all those that are underway within the next three years.

"We can't say we will take five or 10 years to negotiate deals... this isn't too ambitious."

| A Beehive release  ||  August 21,  2017   |||

Brexit and Ireland Britain's troubled relationship with the island next door is a problem again.

Theresa May's government has urged the European Union to allow British businesses to continue to enjoy the benefits of the free trade of goods into Europe after Britain has left the EU. Brexit secretary David Davis said:"These papers will help give businesses and consumers certainty and confidence in the UK's status as an economic powerhouse after we have left the European Union".

The Government is to publish more details of its negotiation plans for Brexit later this week. "We've published recently just in the last few days a number of papers that set out our thinking on some of those key issues for the future relationship".

Slovenia's prime minister Miro Cerar told the Guardian newspaper in an interview that not enough progress had been made to move onto discussing a trade deal, in a blow to the government, who want to begin trade talks alongside negotiations over the UK's withdrawal.

"There are so many hard topics on the table, hard issues there, that one can not expect all those issues will be solved according to the schedule made in the first place".

The European Council will decide in October if "sufficient progress" has been made in discussions so far.

"That is our aim and we are confident that we are working at a pace to be able to get to that point".

Britain is pressing Brussels to begin early talks on a long-term trade deal as part of the negotiations over the terms of Brexit.

But sources said it was up for negotiation whether ECJ rulings will apply in the two or three year transition period after 2019.

A New Zealand/UK dual national with more than 25 years' experience, Falconer will lead trade policy and the development of negotiation capability and will serve as an ambassador for Dr Fox's Department for International Trade. "So, never mind Theresa May's foolish red line; we will have the ECJ in all but name".

The proposal, unveiled in The Times today, could allow Theresa May to square the circle of getting Britain out from under the control of the ECJ while protecting free trade in the EU's single market.

The Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake MP said: "David Davis promised us "the row of the summer" over the Brexit timetable, only to capitulate weeks later to the EU's preferred timetable after a disastrous general election for his party which vastly undermined their negotiating position".

| A Hightech Beacon release  ||  August 21,  2017   |||