N.Z. flower exporters ‘unreliable, inconsistent’

Press, 12 February 1986, Page 49

N.Z. flower exporters ‘unreliable, inconsistent’

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong

New Zealand exports of cut flowers to Hong Kong have been almost halved this year because of the inconsistency and unreliability of some growers, importers say. “Very few New Zealand growers are prepared to make a commitment to set aside a percentage or their production consistently for export,” said Mr Rae Patria, of R.F.P. Air Services, Ltd.

His complaints were echoed by another importer, Mr Eddie Chan, who represents an Auck-land-based co-operative, Flora Pacific, Ltd. “Most of the exporters in New Zealand can’t meet the requirements of buyers here,” said Mr Chan.

The Netherlands, traditionally the biggest supplier, has been boosting its share of the local market at the expense of New Zealand growers. Mr Patria said the Hong Kong market had been growing, with total imports for 1985 estimated at about SHKS2 million ($12.38 million), up from SHK46 million ($10.95 million) in 1984. “But New Zealand is losing market share because growers keep switching to supplying the domestic market and fail to meet their agreed export contracts,” he said. Hong Kong imports from the Netherlands rose from SHKI6 million ($3.8 million) to SHK2I million

($5 million) over the period. Imports from New Zealand fell from SHK4 million ($950,000) to SHK2.4 million ($570,000) last year. The Netherlands share was about 40 per cent of the market in 1985, up from 35 per cent the previous year, while New Zealand’s was expected to fall from 9 per cent to 4.5 per cent. This would put it in fifth place after the Netherlands, Taiwan, China, and Thailand, compared with fourth place in 1984, said Mr Patria. “New Zealand’s got everything going for it,” he said. “They have the right climate, complementary seasons, good growing skills and technology.”

The New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries had also recently moved to relax restrictions on importing propagation material, allowing a greater number of varieties to be grown, he said. “But New Zealand growers are constantly weighing the return from exports with what they can get in the domestic market. You can’t do that if you’re wanting to sell overseas.

“When you’re marketing a product, you have to go to the market and find out what it requries; the type, variety and class. “Then you have to go back to the production unit and set aside a proportion to export to that particular market.

“This is where it is falling down in New Zealand,” Mr Patria said. Only a few growers had made the commitment to agreed amounts at a consistent price, he said. Mr Chan said buyers in Hong Kong found shipments from New Zealand invariably had mistakes. “They’ll send flowers of a different colour from the one asked for, because they don’t have it available,” he said. “The buyers find they can’t sell the other colour so they have to make claims.”

New Zealand exports mostly carnations to Hong Kong and importers said the Netherlands with its bigger, more exportgeared industry, was able to supply a better range of sizes, colours and varieties.

“It goes back to commitment,” said Mr Patria. “People promise you things that just don’t arrive.”

While one or two growers had geared up for exporting, they were the exception, he said. A delegation of New Zealand exporters was in Hong Kong last September and was informed of the complaints. “But I can’t see any improvement,” said Mr Chan.

New Zealand’s flower export industry was unlikely to ever be able to cope with unpredictable, "tremendous orders” for cut flowers from Hong Kong, said the chairman

of the Flower Council, Mr Robin Gormack. "But we are running as fast as we can," Mr Gormack said. “We realise Hong Kong is a big market for New Zealand flower exporters — and a growing one,” he said. He agreed that the cut flower industry could not yet match the efficiency of the Netherlands exporters.

This was partly a problem in coping with huge orders — like those demanded during the Chinese New Year — which was compounded by a lack of air freight space and interruptions in air services by industrial action.

Mr Gormack said he regularly supplied Hong Kong with 300 bunches of carnations a week. For the Chinese New Year, the order was increased from 300 to 5000 — and the only carnations they wanted were red ones, he said.

To add to the supply problems, air services were disrupted by various strikes in New Zealand and overseas, Mr Gormack said.

“I doubt very much if New Zealand has got the capacity to gear up for seasonal orders like this,” he said. The value of the New Zealand dollar had also, in the past, had a “devastating” effect on cut flower exports.

“The price growers have received has halved, although that situation has

eased a little now,”Mr Gormack said. The executive director of the Nurserymen’s Association, Mr Leicester Monk, said that the flower industry was also not "as co-ordinated as it might be.”

“There is no real communication between growers and exporters here,” he said. “Marketing has not been as orderly as it should be. “But having said that the industry does recognise the potential of the near-East market and is anxious to improve,” Mr Monk said.

“Quite simply, the demands of the Hong Kong market often exceed the capability of the flower industry to perform to the level of that demand,” he said.

Mr Gormack said the Flower Council was to start charging a levy from export growers from April 1 to go towards promotion and letting people overseas know what was available in New Zealand. He said the council was also encouraging close cooperation with the Netherlands, because their out-of-season “fits in very well” with New Zealand’s in-season. The chairman of the Dutch flower council was coming to New Zealand this month to “try to keep us up to date with the latest trends,” Mr Gormack said.

"As they move out of Hong Kong we will move in,” he said.