Exporting fun and fictional characters

New Zealand author Joy Cowley's character Mrs Wishy-Washy is a big export!  According to the Success feature writer Nick Smith in the New Zealand Herald last week Chinese children know who Mrs Wishy-Washy is; but not only is she known in China but in the United Arab Emirates, Korea, Canada and the US.
The Mrs Wishy-Washy series of readers for children are published by Clean Slate Press an Auckland company  New Zealand owned and operated company which publishes high-quality educational resources, both for New Zealand schools and the international market.  See http://cleanslatepress.com/
Clean Slate is now a multi-million dollar business selling titles primarily to early education markets in the US, Canada and  Australia.
Obviously the value of the export of these early education readers can be quantified, but what can't be put into dollar terms is the value of the character and its creator, Joy Cowley, for its promotion of New Zealand's creative industries.

Source: Smith, N. (2012) Lovable character key to publisher's success. In The Business Herald p.11 published Friday February 24, 2012.

Manawatu Gorge Landslip - Impact on Exporters

Since August business firms and other travellers have been inconvenienced by a huge landslip in the Manawatu Gorge near Palmerston North.   Logistics and transport operators have been particularly hard hit, especially those taking goods for export through to the Port of Napier.   An economic report last month showed that closures of the gorge since August had cost the region more than $2 million.

Vision Manawatu, the region's economic development agency, has said that those who use the gorge had suffered to the tune of about $62,000 a day.   The report was based on 500 trucks and 6300 other vehicles using the gorge each day.
It calculated lost productivity due to the additional 13 to 20 minutes of travel around the gorge via the Pahiatua Track or Saddle Rd, as well as extra fuel costs and expenses associated with drivers being on the road longer.

Although not visible in the photograph, the Gorge has the railway line to the East Coast on the other side above the river.   Fortunately this event has not affected the milk trains from Hawkes Bay to plants in Taranaki.

Photo courtesy of Nereda Corbett.

Greece and its exports

Over the past months the Greece debt crisis has loomed large in global economic news.   In a recent newspaper article by David Charter entitled Papandreou looks on the sunny side of German bailouts , a plan to set up a huge solar power project called Helios is briefly outlined.  If it goes ahead Greece will be able to export solar energy to Northern Europe.   This does raise the question in my mind: What does Greece actually export?

Trade in services is obviously very important with Tourism heading that list.  Greece’s main products exports are food and beverages, petroleum products, chemicals and textiles.   Its principal export partners in 2010 were countries of the EU: Germany and Italy.

What does Greece export to New Zealand?   The main products imported into New Zealand from Greece were plastics products, vegetable preparation products, aluminium sheets and fresh grapes.   Greece is 64^th in the country rankings for trade with New Zealand with a NZD$44 million trade surplus in New Zealand’s favour for the year ended June 2010.   Export of goods from Greece to New Zealand has been growing steadily from NZ$12 million in 2003 to NZ$20.5 million  in 2010. 

Information Sources:

Charter, D. (2011) Papandreou looks on the sunny side of German bailouts. Dominion Post 28 September, 2011 p.C5

Global New Zealand – International Trade, Investment, and Travel Profile 2010. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.  Available in pdf format.

Statistics New Zealand Infoshare database.

OECD Greece statistical profile: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/country-statistical-profile-greece_20752288-table-grc

World Factbook. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gr.html

Photo from the Greek National Tourism Organisation.

Germany - falling imports from New Zealand

I had every intention of writing a blog post when I was actually in countries visited, but that didn't happen and so here I am writing very much post trip.   That failure however does give one time for reflection ...

Our time in Germany didn't get off to a very auspicious start with the e-coli scare uppermost in our minds.   Since I am vegetarian I certainly was careful what I ate in the first few days until it seemed that the crisis was over.   The other story which has dominated the news over the whole holiday has been the concern for the fate of the Greek economy and Germany's involvement in both the problem and the solution.   Looking into the NZ School of Export's file on Germany - a clipping from the DominionPost of March 21, 2010 shows that this has been an ongoing story and concern for some little while and bailout two is still being worked through.

In retrospect I now realise that being held back by Berlin Police on the Unter den Linden while suited gentlemen with briefcases got out of large limos, and seeing a cavalcade of helmeted motorcyclists sirens blaring near the Tiergarten were almost certainly both to do with high level discussions to sort out this problem.

Following re-unification there has been a huge thrust to re-build and build anew and we were impressed by the restoration of the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam (outside of Berlin) and the plans for the new Brandenburg Parliament = Landtag.  In the photo below, the red building outside Nikolaikirche is the Information Centre for the Parliament building.   Towards the end of the socialist era, a building was started on this site and   subsequently demolished so that the historical layout of the city could be recreated. (Photo: Graeme Siddle 10 June, 2011)

New Zealand fruit is being sold in Berlin - however our export trade in apples to Germany seems to have taken a hit in the 2009-2010 period with a 41% drop in value of product!   New Zealand's exports to Germany fell in the year to June 2010 by 22.3% and the trade imbalance was in Germany's favour with New Zealand importing NZD $952 million's worth of merchandise from Germany.  Motor vehicles unsurprisingly, are our major import from Germany.

Germany's exports jumped 17% in 2010 and is now out-exporting the US to China by a factor of three to one.  Despite an active German- New Zealand Business Association (www.germantrade.co.nz)  we don't seem to be cashing in on the export-led recovery in Germany.

Postscript:  we were fortunate to be able to visit Baden-Wurttemburg before we left and did a whistle-stop tour of the the very attractive university town of Tubingen.   Our attention was drawn to this shop window:

If you look carefully you will see two kiwis and a slice of kiwifruit.   The link to shoes was not obvious!! (Photo: Graeme Siddle 14 June 2011)

Will Katla Blow?

The prospect of the Icelandic volcano Katla erupting will be making some exporters quail at the possibility and others may be rejoicing.   The CIPD (United Kingdom) Update for 28 April 2010 did a poll on volcanic ash disruption which revealed that the biggest impact on business was people being stuck abroad (72%).   Just 22% felt that the disruption had no impact, and 6% had problems with imports/exports.

The flower exporters of Kenya would I am sure tell a different story.

Here is New Zealand the disruption has opened up new markets for a fish exporter.   The demand for NZ King Salmon's products have 'rocketed' in Asia and the Middle East.   You can read the report at:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/3629824/Icelandic-volcano-fires-up-taste-for-Kiwi-fish-exports

Have you got any disruption stories?  Take a moment to share them with us.