By Melissa Davies
New Zealand has come away from the Shanghai World Expo with three things on its ‘to-do’ list; seafood, wine and technology.
The expo ended overnight with an extravagant closing ceremony.
But, a team of New Zealanders will stay on in China, tasked with the mission of building a two-way trade within five years.
Shanghai rushed for a last glimpse of what, for some, will be the closest they get to China’s newfound wealth.
Homes were demolished to make way for the expo, which has cost China around $58 billion.
Of the 72 million people who visited, 4.5 million lined up at the New Zealand pavilion.
“Today I’m here with my granddaughter,” Wang Jin Tai told 3 News.
“She has just started high school, so we want to give her an impression of New Zealand, to study there.”
New Zealand paid $30 million to get this advertising opportunity.
Some of the trade team will now stay on in Shanghai to try and keep New Zealand under China’s nose.
NZTE China director Tim Green says New Zealand seafood, wine and innovative technology should be our focus.
“You wouldn’t really want to have more than say three or five initially,” he said.
“The scale of the opportunity would get lost if we try to take on too much at the same time.”
One of the biggest deals for New Zealand to come out of the expo was a contract to supply a Chinese chain with sea cucumber and mussels.
It is expected to be worth around $250 million over 15 years, and create 900 jobs in the Bay of Plenty.
“I can tell you quite specifically, business has been done at the pavilion and so downstream there will be economic return,” says NZ Pavilion Commissioner Phillip Gibson.
But the task ahead is not easy. China is our second biggest export market. From their point of view we’re minnows, ranked way down at 49th on their list of suppliers.
3 News