Meat Industry Association Annual Conference

Sunday 12 September

Welcome to Christchurch, the second biggest city in New Zealand and also the second-to-top conference and convention venue in the country. Number one is the city of stalls and traffic jams, also known as Auckland. May I just observe that with this choice of venue you have chosen well.

Christchurch also has an economic outlook more suited to your industry. We are a trading city that, like many of you, has to look outward to the rest of the world to find our customers. We live and thrive by our skills as traders.

Christchurch has the great luxury of having a truly mixed economy. A good part of our economic well-being still comes almost literally off the sheep's back. There are a few more cows in that mix now but my point is that the rural economy is a major component of our economic health as a city.

Along with the rural economy we also enjoy the good fortune to be a manufacturing city that has enjoyed a revival with the advent of new technology. We are the hub in New Zealand for high-tech industry. In fact we have about 50 per cent more people working in advanced electronics and software than you would find anywhere else in New Zealand. So we enjoy both the old economy and the new economy. When you add service industries like tourism, we are a booming city.

Our challenge is that of balancing growth with quality of life. It is not a unique challenge to Christchurch, to some degree it is the same challenge all of our sectors face. It's not a bad challenge to have to face. I think our next big hurdle is that which will take us firmly away from a low wage, low skill economy to one with high skills and added value in all sectors.

I would not be at all surprised if other speakers today touched on the very hungry, very awake, no longer sleeping, giant that is China. It is not often you watch a major shift in economic and political power taking place in your own lifetime. Having been to China recently I have no doubt we face just such a change. For smart traders like New Zealanders the potential is huge. For an industry such as yours the possibilities are vast. It has been one of the great ironies of this present economic boom here in New Zealand that so much of it has been on the back of a commodities boom. Commodities like meat and wool were seen as dated ways to create wealth back at the height of the dot-com boom. While that boom went bust the world still seems hungry for our meat and other primary products. I suspect it always will be.

I hope you have a great conference.