A FRESH Produce Trade Forum in Auckland last week marked a deliberate reboot of the fresh produce trade relationship between Fiji and New Zealand. During the forum Fiji's New Zealand High Commissioner Filimone Waqabaca highlighted on the continuing trade imbalance between Fiji and New Zealand which strongly favoured New Zealand and how to close the gap. "Fiji is New Zealand's biggest trading partner in the Pacific importing $NZ400 million ($F586.2m) annually from New Zealand whilst exporting $NZ55m ($F80.6m) to New Zealand," he said. "Fiji's export in fresh produce was worth $NZ14.2m ($F20.8m) between 2011 and 2015." Mr Waqabaca compared Fiji's…

SAN FRANCISCO– Tradeshift, the leading business commerce platform, announced today the opening of an office in Sydney, Australia to deliver trade and financial capabilities for Australia and New Zealand-headquartered businesses and multinational companies. “As a global company that connects businesses in more than 190 countries, setting up a presence in Australia was the next logical step in our international strategy, ” said Christian Lanng, CEO and co-founder of Tradeshift. “Our marketplace includes thousands of suppliers based in Australia and New Zealand. Both countries are growing economically and are key to how we will support the global supply chain going forward.”…

  New Zealand’s oceans, coasts, and marine wildlife are under growing pressure, according to the first national report from the Ministry for the Environment and Statistics New Zealand about the marine environment. Our marine environment 2016, released today, identifies three top areas of concern: global greenhouse gas emissions are causing ocean acidification and warming – changes that will continue for generationsmost of our native marine birds and many mammals are threatened with or at risk of extinctionour coasts are the most degraded of all marine areas, due to sediment and nutrients washed off the land, introduced marine pests, and seabed…

Victoria University of Wellington astrophysicists are part of an international team that today releases one of the widest-ever radio wave surveys of the Universe and the first to reveal it in such technicolour detail. Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA, or GLEAM, survey has produced a catalogue of 300,000 galaxies observed at frequencies from 70 to 230 MHz by the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a $50 million radio telescope located at a remote site in the West Australian outback. Victoria Associate Professor of Physics Melanie Johnston-Hollitt and postdoctoral fellows Dr…

If tourism is producing massive income for New Zealand why are John Key and Bill English putting it in their “back pockets” and distributing just a few “coins” to the real earners? “That’s exactly what they did this year by giving local councils just a paltry total of $12 million funding over four years to support their infrastructure costs,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters. “Meanwhile, the government has collected GST from international tourism of $1.1 billion. “The government is out of touch with the burden put on ratepayers. In small town NZ tourist…

Reaching for the moon with NASA - A Victoria University of Wellington PhD graduand is investigating what new information can be gained about moonquakes during his postdoctoral fellowship at NASA. Jesse-Lee Dimech, who is completing his PhD in Geophysics at Victoria, says seismic energy is useful for looking inside planets. “Using the energy from earthquakes, or in this case, moonquakes, we can gain insight into the composition and structure of the Moon.” Between 1969 and 1972, five of the Apollo missions successfully placed seismometers at landing sites on the Moon, which recorded ground motion and radioed this information back to Earth.…

Over 150 people from all over the country with gather at Victoria University of Wellington this week to examine how China’s modernising agricultural sector may impact New Zealand exporters, business relations and trade policies. The two-day conference, The Rise of Chinese Agriculture, has among its guest speakers 17 international speakers representing Chinese and New Zealand government departments, New Zealand practitioners in China and top international scholars from five countries. The conference is organised by the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre. image013.pngVictoria University International Relations Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at the China Centre, Dr Jason Young, says China’s agriculture…

BATTLEBORO, NC (PRWEB) OCTOBER 25, 2016 - Ossid, powered by Pro Mach, introduces at Pack Expo 2016, November 6 - 9 in Chicago, the OTS-32 tray sealer, a rugged mid-range machine designed for those growing markets that require a robust, affordable, and flexible solution for tray sealing. At the show, Ossid will also showcase the OTS-10VMAP table top tray sealer and the 500Si high speed stretch overwrapper. The tray sealer comes loaded with new vacuum skin pack and modified atmosphere packaging capabilities, and the company’s premier stretch overwrapper will be demonstrating PVC stretch overwrap, along with application of decorative labels to…

Universities, polytechnics, local councils and hospitals are being given a leg up to get started on projects to improve their energy management to save money, reduce emissions and improve the quality of services they provide. The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) today opened the latest funding round for Crown loans to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across public sector organisations. EECA Business General Manager Greg Visser said public sector organisations could access the low-cost, interest-free loans to finance investments in energy efficiency improvements and renewable energy technology. “The opportunities are incredibly varied, a hospital may choose a…

"Infrastructure New Zealand better reflects the wide range of priorities facing the organisation today, including transport funding, project procurement and regional governance and planning reform," says Infrastructure New Zealand chief executive Stephen Selwood. "When NZCID was created 12 years ago, New Zealand's infrastructure challenges were of a different kind. We had severely under-invested in assets critical for economic and social development for a generation. We needed investment and we needed it urgently. Our entire organisational focus was on infrastructure development. "Pleasingly, as a country we have since tackled many of our most urgent priorities. We've invested in our electricity backbone,…

Britain’s wealthy Gupta family is reportedly interested in Arrium’s steel and iron assets. The Australian reports that the Guptas’ Liberty House has submitted a bid for Arrium’s assets, which are being sold as Arrium Australia, separately from Moly-Cop. Liberty is run by Sanjeev Gupta, and it had previously attempted to acquire Tata’s British Steel assets prior to Brexit. The article notes that the Guptas’ plan would be to invest in Arrium Australia to produce higher-grade ores and better quality steel at the Whyalla factory, which is forecast to lose $11 million next financial year, down from a previous $43 million…