Export New Zealand executive director Catherine Beard says congested MIQ is preventing business travel, which is costing companies business.
Grounded New Zealand exporters are losing business to competitors who have resumed international business travel.
The covid-19 pandemic has kept the majority of NZ exporters at home for the past 20 months due to the risk of returning staff being unable to access congested managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities.
Pressure is growing for exporters to resume travel to see first-hand how the pandemic has altered markets and to cement relationships with customers who are being courted by competitors who are free to travel again.
“You can’t Zoom an export business for two years,” Te Mata Exports managing director Murray Tait said.
Export NZ executive director Catherine Beard says NZ exporters cannot remain grounded for much longer.
“I’ve been hearing from agri-exporters that while the rest of the world was in lockdown, not being able to travel has been bearable,” Beard said.
Relationships secured existing supply agreements, but Beard says the challenge now is competing for new work in the face of competitors who can travel and meet customers, which NZ companies cannot.
She is calling on the Government to announce a travel day, a nominated day when international travel can begin and the conditions under which it can resume.
Silver Fern Farm (SFF) chief customer officer Dave Courtney says it missed a contract because a competitor was able to front the customer to promote their product, which it could not.
“No one can tell your story better than you can,” Courtney said.
Alliance Group sales manager Shane Kingston says the border closure has created challenges engaging with global customers and it is crucial borders reopen as soon as possible.
NZ Wine chief executive Philip Gregan says while international travel remains difficult for NZ businesses, competitors are travelling and meeting customers face to face.
“The more international travel has opened up in overseas markets, the more the absence of NZers will be noticeable,” Gregan said.
Gregan says face-to-face interaction is essential to build long-term relationships, partnerships and to understand markets.
Tait fears the Government has underestimated the impact of not having NZ exporters visiting markets, saying the pandemic has changed consumer buying patterns and behaviour and customers and businesses need to understand what that means.
“None of their actions so far demonstrate that they understand the issues,” Tait said.
Beard says congested MIQ is preventing business travel, which is costing companies business.
She wants MIQ closed and replaced by a self-isolation system for returnees linked with vaccine passports and details of a testing regime.
“They need to get rid of MIQ,” Beard said.
“It does not work, it is the eye of a needle, it is expensive, you are out of action, there are too few spaces and the demand is too high.”
A promise to set aside 10% of rooms for business travellers failed due to the inability to develop a dedicated booking process.
Connecting with customers via technology has worked up to now, but Beard says exporters need to start travelling to generate new business and to stave off global competitors who are freely moving around the world.
A recent survey of exporters revealed the inability to travel was their second-greatest concern, identified by 51% of respondents.
She says exporters have adapted their businesses by hiring more people in-market, investing in manufacturing closer to consumers or, in the case of small and medium-sized businesses, physically moving themselves and their families to be closer to their markets.
While there are indications international travel could resume in the first quarter of next year, Beard says exporters need something definitive like a date.
“We need a date and the airlines also need to know a date so they can be prepared,” she said.
