Blank Canvas rides white wine wave as New Zealand wine sales soar in China
If you find a new consumer in a developed wine market, you are taking them from someone else, says Blank Canvas co-founder Sophie Parker-Thomson MW.
The humble hotpot has been the catalyst for phenomenal growth of the red meat market in China, Silver Fern Farms (SFF) chief executive Dean Hamilton says.
In fact, most of SFF's red meat export growth has been based on the dish in restaurant chains.
During 15 years of exporting to China it had been slow growth. Primarily one or two relatively cheap lamb products went into the hotpot business in a north-eastern region.
But business with China has grown phenomenally in the last five years from $50 million to $330m annually, Hamilton says. A big contributor has been hotpots' rising popularity nationwide via restaurant chains offering everything from relatively cheap dishes to silver service.
Variations on the dish have expanded to include mutton and beef.
Four things have happened during these five years of phenomenal growth, says Hamilton. The lamb business has hugely diversified: two products that
were 85% of the lamb the company sold to China now account for
40%.
They have moved into mutton and beef. The beef business has gone from $3m of sales five years ago to $160m in the 12 months just ended.
"You can see the phenomenal growth we are experiencing, such that we are selling more beef than sheepmeat," he says.
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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DairyNZ says its plantain programme continues to deliver promising results, with new data confirming that modest levels of plantain in pastures reduce nitrogen leaching, offering farmers a practical, science-backed tool to meet environmental goals.
'Common sense' cuts to government red tape will make it easier for New Zealand to deliver safe food to more markets.
Balclutha farmer Renae Martin remembers the moment she fell in love with cows.
Academic freedom is a privilege and it's put at risk when people abuse it.
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