One of the key focus areas for Pacific Trade Invest New Zealand (PTI NZ) is to create commercial opportunities for exporters in the Blue Pacific and help them gain access to the highly competitive New Zealand market by leading and facilitating relationships with importers from New Zealand.

PTI NZ remains committed to its ongoing support of Blue Pacific SMEs by facilitating shared understanding between markets. This was most recently achieved through the recent delivery of its Path To Market webinar on 15 and 16 September.

The webinar is aimed at supporting export-capable and export-ready businesses in Pacific Island Countries (PICs). More than 100 participants registered for the event.

The webinar commenced with welcome remarks from PTI NZ Trade Commissioner Glynis Miller, who observed that “the Path To Market webinar contained a solid line-up of speakers from both New Zealand and the Pacific. Leaders in their fields and participants got to hear directly from those in the business about buying, distributing and exporting. Path To Market covers what to do, and what not do when looking to export into the New Zealand market.”

The webinar was held over two days, with the first day covering consisting of an overview of New Zealand’s trade with the Pacific, a presentation by the Samoa Coconut Cluster on centralised planning and consolidation, a discussion on the nuances of export-capable or export-ready, market access for food products and biosecurity certification by the New Zealand Government’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), and labelling compliance and distribution.

Day two involved further topics such as the importance of brand marketing, insights from a New Zealand buyer, logistics, documentation, freight and costs, and the in-country support available for small to medium-sized enterprises.

PTI NZ Trade Development Manager Rohan Lord said, “We know there is a strong appetite to export goods from the Pacific into the New Zealand market. This was supported by the engagement by participants over the two days. We were really pleased with the positive feedback we received from participants and look forward to hosting another Path To Market in 2022.”

The Path To Market webinar presentations and YouTube videos can be accessed by visiting https://www.pacifictradeinvest.co.nz/p2m-webinars/

For more information about Path To Market, contact Trade Development Manager Rohan Lord: rohan@pacifictradeinvest.co.nz