NZ dairy giant signs 235 mln USD deal with China
30/5/2008 16:35
Fonterra, the New Zealand dairy products giant, signed a deal worth more
than 300 million NZ dollars (US$235 million) with China, The Press newspaper
reported today.
Philip Turner, Fonterra's Japan-based general manager of
trade for Asia, told a New Zealand Parliamentary select committee -- hearing
submissions on legislation to give effect to the trade deal-- that the contract
was to supply "a major multinational customer" with nutritional milk
powders.
Turner said the "commercially very valuable" deal came within weeks
of the signing of the China-New Zealand free trade agreement in early
April.
"We've been able to conclude a deal recently on the basis of the FTA
being signed, which results in a considerable volume of business and processing
being done in New Zealand that would otherwise have gone offshore, in this case
to Singapore," The Press quoted Turner as saying.
Fonterra's written
submission said the deal would generate more than 300 million NZ dollars in
revenue over four years.
"These value-added dairy products will be
manufactured in New Zealand factories, using New Zealand milk, capital, labor
and technology," it said.
"Without the FTA with China, lower-priced product
from New Zealand would almost certainly have been processed offshore in
Asia."
Trade Minister Phil Goff welcomed the news, saying "Fonterra's
submission to Parliament, and its announcement of this deal only weeks after
signature of the FTA, is further evidence of the value of that outcome to New
Zealand."
China is New Zealand's fourth-largest export market for dairy
products.
The phase-out of tariffs on all dairy products under the deal over
the next five to 12 years will save Fonterra 56 million NZ dollars on current
export values.
Xinhua
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