New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year 2011

                                                       
Bill Buckley - Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 Photo: from Buckley Systems website http://www.buckleysystems.com/
On September 14th I posted on Entrepreneurship and referred to the Ernst & Young resource entitled Nature or nurture.   Included in that publication was a photo list of 'some of the world's leading entrepreneurs'.
It would be good to see Bill represented on the EY website or in one of their publications in the future.

Mr Buckley will represent New Zealand in the next stage of the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition at Monte Carlo in France in 2012. More information about the New Zealand category winners can be found on the EY New Zealand site at: http://www.ey.com/NZ/en/About-us/Entrepreneur-Of-The-Year.

You can also tap into interviews with entrepreneurs at:
http://www.ey.com/GL/en/About-us/Entrepreneur-Of-The-Year/Entrepreneurs-on---Leadership and this includes Diane Foreman CEO of NZ based Emerald Group.

His company Buckley Systems Ltd situated in Auckland, New Zealand, manufactures precision electromagnets and almost all their production is exported - mostly to the US, UK and Japan. Congratulations!

Don't forget to use the label list for other posts on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship or use the Search facility - top left sidebar.

Exporting - a dilemma

Should there ever be any dilemma over exporting - isn't all exporting 'a good thing'?

Located in Petone, New Zealand, the Exide Technologies company operates a plant for the recycling of batteries.   The Company has been accused of breaching emission limits and endangering the health of nearby residents.  This post is not about the rights and/or wrongs of that.

Since 2008, 100,000 tonnes of toxic lead acid batteries have been exported to Korea and the Philippines, rather than being recycled in New Zealand.   With the possibility that four further direct shipments out of New Zealand will get the green light, it is likely that the Exide plant will close because there is not enough work to keep it going.   Dilemma 1:  Exporting, generally thought to be good, may in this case cause the closure of a local plant with loss of jobs.

Under the Basel Convention the Government has an obligation to ensure the availability of safe and adequate disposal facilities, if possible within our own borders.   Dilemma 2: It seems as though we shouldn't be exporting this material but should be trying to recycle it within New Zealand, and there is a plant available which can do the job.   That however would stop the export trade, and that would be bad for our balance of payments right.   Exide say that the export of batteries is unlawful and have written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.

The Company says that little has been done to assess the environmental safety of plants overseas.   Dilemma 3:   Are we exporting our toxic problems to other countries?  Should New Zealand send this or any hazardous waste to any other country?  Is it the right thing to do?     Isn't this the equivalent of sending nuclear waste elsewhere - and we all think that is wrong.

Export permits had been issued by the Ministry of Economic Development until July1, subject to satisfaction that overseas plants are meeting correct standards.   Dilemma 4: Maybe the Ministry shouldn't have been issuing the export permits without more information.

If New Zealand continues to export batteries for recycling, it may cause the Exide plant to close.  Then if the export market dries up, we are left with no plant which can do this work.   Dilemma 5: The export trade in this product may leave NZ without the ability to do what it has committed itself to do under international agreements.

Exporting the batteries rather than recycling in New Zealand, reaps a higher profit for companies.   Dilemma 6:  This is not an uncommon problem - the local activity doesn't get as high a price as the overseas one.   Do we use positive discrimination to support local industry as opposed to exporting?

The Exide Technologies Ltd website is at: http://www.exide.co.nz/ but there is no information about this activity.   The Company's application for a continuation of its resource consent  and report on process details to the Wellington Regional Council dated April 2011   http://www.gw.govt.nz/assets/Resource-Consents/Manson-Report-on-Process.PDF     is however a more informative document.   In it they say that the service they provide is of national importance, and that if the plant closed ULABs (used lead acid batteries) would have to be exported as hazardous waste or would accumulate in the environment.

Are we committed to exporting and exports at any price?  Conversely are we committed to recycling in New Zealand at any price?

A Nut Resource

Still don't know what export product this is?  I wouldn't have either!    It is a photo of a cashew apple and the cashew nut shown in an image from Cornell University.

Did you know that Vietnam has a 37% dominance of the world cashew market?  I didn't until I read this article by Leo Lewis which was reprinted in the Dominion Post on March 27, 2010 on p.C9: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/consumer_goods/article7071629.ece


The major producers of raw cashew nuts are: India, Brazil, Vietnam, West Africa and East Africa  and the
top 14 countries producing Cashew Nuts (in alphabetical order) are: Benin, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan. Source: http://www.cashew.in/
 
Vietnam has just opened an electronic exchange floor for trading cashews.
 
If you are looking for information on other export products, check out the ELIS catalogue resources at:
http://ets.kohalibrary.com/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=export+products

Gifts from the Magi - Export Products

‘After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east… Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. .. he sent them on to Bethlehem… and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary… Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.                                  Matthew 2: 1-12

Image: www.sxc.hu/photo/416373

The treasures of the Wise Men were thought to be from Arabia and almost certainly were products that were traded at the time of Jesus’ birth. Gold represented Jesus' Kingship. What of them now as export products?

New Zealand has its own gold mines and history of gold mining.   It continues to export gold and in 2008 gold exports to the world were valued at US$369,763,250; this was an increase in value from the previous year when our gold exports were valued at US$200,842,188 (Source: UN Comtrade database).  

New Zealand's largest gold producer is OceanaGold which operates mines at Reefton on the West Coast and at Macraes in North Otago.  It was expecting to produce between 280,000 and 300,000 ounces this year - more than ever it has produced.

Figures Factsheet - New Zealand's Top Ten Exports 1999-2009 FREE!

Photographer: Robert Percy Moore Cambridge Co-operative Dairy Co, Hautapu, between 1923-1928.  

Panoramic negative Reference No. Pan-0545-F.   Photographic Archive, Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand.  No known copyright restrictions.  Source: Commons on Flickr

If you are interested in the latest Factsheet from the New Zealand School of Export download it now from: http://www.export.ac.nz/freedownloads.html

Trade in Services - Untapped Potential

There seems to be a continuing and exclusive focus on the export of goods. Even in a recent column by John Carran in the Dominion Post October 10, 2009 entitled No economic salvation likely from goods exports alone where the title seems to suggest there could be other kinds of exports which will help New Zealand, trade in services gets very little support.

This is in spite of the fact that the services share of New Zealand’s total exports is about 26% and the March 2009 Balance of Payments figures show there was an increase in the export of services. Charles Finny of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce said in a press release on 25 June 2009 that ‘New Zealand exported $2.9 billion of services excluding transport and travel in the last 12 months. The range of services in this category includes:

Computer, financial, telecommunications, legal, advertising, architectural, film production, engineering and many other services.’

Is it time for exporters of services to bring some balance to the push for an export-driven recovery?

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/telstar/135412439/ 20-foot (1 TEU) containers stacked in Alameda, California (Creative Commons-licensed content for noncommercial use requiring attribution)

Potatoes for export

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/rural/2552428/Psyllid-damage-hits-potato-yield

This article highlights a potentially damaging disease which has hit some potato growers. 33% of New Zealand's potato crop is exported

http://www.potatoesnz.co.nz/ This website which 'represents the interests of New Zealand's seed, table, and process potato growers' is very informative and provides easily accessible statistics. Did you know that

* in March 2009 New Zealand potato growers exported 1.8 million kgs of potatoes to Fiji

* the value of New Zealand's potato exports in 2008 was more than NZ$83 million (FOB)

* Canterbury has the largest area of potato growing

* the 7th World Potato Congress was held in Canterbury in March 2009.