New Zealand Trade
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise held “New Zealand Food Connection 2017” on May 30 at the Plaza Hotel Seoul. The event featured 23 representative New Zealand food and beverage enterprises.
New Zealand Food Connection, celebrating its seventh year, is an annual food trade show introducing premium New Zealand food and beverage products to the Korean market. Participating companies showcased more than 100 food and beverage products this year to domestic buyers and offered demonstrations and tasting events.
As tariffs on New Zealand food and beverage products have declined or been eliminated since the New Zealand-Korea FTA came into force in December 2015, domestic consumption of New Zealand products has significantly increased. Especially, in 2016, the first full year of the FTA, New Zealand’s overall food and beverage exports to Korea reached NZ$593 million, an 18 percent year-on-year increase.
“Korean consumer awareness of the quality and safety of New Zealand food and beverage products has been increasing as we have introduced products attractive to domestic consumers over the past few years,” said Ryan Freer, New Zealand trade commissioner to Korea.
“The food and beverage industry is an important sector which accounts for 40 percent of overall exports to Korea. We expect that the sector will continuously grow due to price competitiveness from the FTA and growing consumer preference for New Zealand food.”
New Zealand has ideal environmental conditions for dairy, farming, horticulture, grape cultivation and aquaculture with extensive pastureland, clean water and a mild climate. Moreover, New Zealand healthy lamb and cattle raised on the range are recognized as core elements of the quality and taste of premium dairy and meat products.
“As 54 percent of total land is pastureland and livestock farming is well-developed, New Zealand is one of the major producers of lamb. New Zealand lamb gazing on fresh pastures results in tender and well-flavored lamb meat,” said Freer.
“Exports of New Zealand lamb to Korea increased 36 percent in 2016 compared to the previous year and demand for New Zealand lamb has been constantly increasing. We will aggressively promote New Zealand lamb in the premium meat market,” he added.
New Zealand Food Connection 2017 introduced a wide range of beverage products including premium New Zealand wines, as well as honey, meat, seafood, horticulture and dairy products. In addition, a New Zealand Wine Seminar & Tasting Event and New Zealand Beverage Demonstration & Tasting Event were conducted at the site attracting the attention of visitors.
New Zealand Food Connection is part of the New Zealand Food Week program organized by New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, and a wide range of New Zealand F&B related-events will be held in Seoul and Busan from May 29 to June 3.
In addition, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is running an online event during New Zealand Food Week. To join the event, participants should leave a comment about their most memorable New Zealand F&B product on the Facebook page of New Zealand Embassy in Korea (www.facebook.com/nzembassykorea) by June 2. Ten selected winners will be given a wide range of prizes, including an opportunity to have a meal with Ha Ji-won, New Zealand Cultural Ambassador, and two roundtrip flights to New Zealand on Singapore Airlines.