The Nelson Tasman region has a richness of diverse industry and is the home to some key players exporting their products and putting Nelson Tasman on the map. This month we talk to some of our key industries taking us to the world.
Nelson’s harbour in the 1840s must have been a spectacular sight with the coming and going of a diverse array of merchant sailing vessels, joined in the 1850s by steam ships. Established in 1841 as New Zealand’s second oldest city, the entrepreneurial nature of the first settlers combined with a hinterland conducive to the production of goods desired elsewhere in the world meant that by 1849 substantial quantities of timber, wool and grain were being exported from the region, followed soon after by shiploads of apples.
Nowadays the region contributes 1.7% to New Zealand’s gross domestic product while growing at an average of 5% per year. The export of goods from the region’s primary industries; horticulture, viticulture, timber and the blue economy (aquaculture), are major contributors to this.
Port Nelson, Australasia’s largest fishing port, continues to be vital to the region’s economic success with 67% of the volume of all goods passing through it destined for export. The seafood industry is the region’s largest export earner with fishing, aquaculture and processing providing more than 2600 jobs. King Salmon’s Graeme Tregidga says, “Demand for salmon is so great we just can’t produce enough. Fifty to 60 per cent of everything we sell goes offshore to Australia, Japan, North America and Southeast Asia. With such high world-wide demand, the market is very strong right now.”
Contributing to the strength of the blue economy are the many businesses that have enabled Nelson to become the global hub of research and innovation including the Cawthron Institute, the Plant and Food Research Seafood Research Unit and Niwa. A science and technology precinct is planned for Port Nelson which will see a number of businesses and research establishments in close proximity to one another.
Nelson has the highest number of scientists per capita of anywhere else in the country which benefits all areas of the primary, manufacturing and tech sectors.
Viticulture remains a strong contributor to the export economy. Anna Seifried of Seifried Estate says that despite the strictures of Covid, the market for their Nelson wines offshore is continuing to grow. “We supply twenty-six markets worldwide with 50% going to the United Kingdom”, she says. Recently established are new markets in the UAE and South Korea.
Jacquie Walters of Walters PR has a broad view of the local economy, with many clients based here who are exporting. “It isn’t just things we are seeing go offshore,” she says. “There is actually a great deal of intelligence and skills earning export dollars for the region. As global media and communications manager for the international OSACO group who are human risk investigators and mitigators, for example, my skills have become part of the export economy.”
Pic’s Peanut Butter, who Jacquie worked with for eight years, is seeing huge demand for its products around the world while another of her clients, Hybrid Bikes Nelson is just breaking into the English, German and Australian markets.
SuJon is a local business that has been exporting for over twenty years. Michelle Manson, daughter of founders Sue and John Gibb, reports that their superfood Blackcurrant Powder will shortly be sold by Amazon. This is in addition to the multiple international markets they already have for it and their frozen berries.
A few of the other many companies in the early stages of taking Nelson and New Zealand to the world are Kimer Med, developing anti-viral medication to tackle a range of harmful viruses; Noologica, an open-source and open-science initiative to provide a mental health diagnostic application and Ribcell Systems, developing new construction componentry and systems for housing that will make it possible to build and install a (social) house in one working day.
Behind the scenes and driving the export of local goods and services forward are New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, the Nelson Chamber of Commerce and the Nelson Regional Development Agency (NRDA). As Fiona Wilson, CE of NRDA says, “There are a lot of exciting developments right now. Nelson Tasman is and will be a key contributor to NZ Inc.'s growing delivery of quality food to the world. In recent years there has been a move beyond the dependence on quality primary produce that we are well-known for, expanding the regional base of manufacturing and other added-value industry. Although our primary production and exports remain strong, we are seeing notable growth of added-value products and ‘weightless’ exports - knowledge and intellectual property. Nelson Tasman's fabulous lifestyle offerings are attractive to people whose work can be done remotely, and our businesses have customers all over the world.”
