“LEY QUE ESTABLECE LA PRESUNCIÓN DE QUE EL ESTADO ES POSEEDOR DE LOS INMUEBLES DE SU PROPIEDAD Y DECLARA

New Zealand's good reputation and capability for generating high quality animal and

other products such as meat, wool, hides, honey, or animal nutrients, supports the development of these industries. The moderate climate, good grasslands and forest areas provide generally favourable conditions for a high yield.

Some highly perishable animal products, such as meat, reqUIre fast transport to markets. This also calls for specialised containers that keep the same low temperature continuously in order to maintain chilled or frozen conditions. Firm A 7 reported shipping problems: "There is strong competition at times, mainly during harvest season, for containers with other firms wishing to ship produce. Our firm requires containers with facilities for ' chilled and ' frozen' goods." (A 7)

The export items in this industry were generally of a higher value per export unit than agricultural produce. Thus, shipping costs could normally be recovered through higher profit margins per volume. Shipping by sea containers was the rule, depending on the nature of the products, unless it was a speciality product and of very high value and required delivery by airfreight (for example, firm A 7 reported that they fly out

some high quality meat cuts). The industry appeared to suffer from a shortage of available containers at certain times of the year when substantial amounts of fresh produce are harvested and shipped. Furthennore, shipment facilities to certain countries, such as South Africa, seemed to be less regular and incurred higher costs.

For meat and dairy products the persisting import quotas of the USA and European markets have to be taken into consideration by exporters before entering into an international contract. However, the main export barriers for this industry were the even more rigorous health and safety regulations than required for the export of produce. This applies especially to meat and honey products (A 7, A9). Finn A 7's export products, for example required therefore not only "chilled" or "frozen" transport, but also a "host of health inspections including the required documentation" (A 7) which were costly and time-consuming to undertake. Firm A 7 exported globally and each of their markets required a variety of entry procedures. To be able to manage this hurdle successfully the firm had to pay careful attention to details. Above all, they had to maintain effective communication with all involved parties during the whole export process. Documentation and paperwork had to be faultless to be able to export the items to countries with high security requirements such as Europe, Japan, and the USA. Exporters reported the rule of thumb that the more profitable the markets, the stricter the requirements for health and safety documentation. It is now standard practice for U.S. customers to require a complete chain of documentation for imported meats; this means from the animal producers to the retailer, every single step on the way needs certification and documentation. Thus the compliance costs in this sector were much higher than for the produce sector.

MAF have taken on a similar role here to enforce the international regulations by implementing compliance inspections and documentation as they do with agricultural products. Again, MAF' s website infonns about the current regulations of all countries to which New Zealanders export. However, MAF have outsourced the veterinary services to independent bodies which carry out the required inspections and issue certificates for the export products. Many complaints surfaced that these veterinary services of MAF were not user-friendly and very costly indeed. Exporters claimed that veterinary services are now centralised, and not accessible on weekends or after hours:

MAF are very hard, they centralised their vets . . . They are a bit too thin on the ground. We are an exporting country and all they are doing is centralising all the time. That's probably the sign of the time, 'cause everyone is doing it, but it just makes everyone so much more remote. Simple straightforward information is not getting out there, they send you pages and pages of absolute rubbish on what might happen and on what might not happen and going into all sorts of details . . . They need to get basic information out, just people who know the job. (A6)

Some criticism from exporters went even further, stating that MAF is overly zealous:

There is more and more paper work to be done to export . . . NZ likes to show everybody that we have got a good system here. And I think some of the systems are forced on us . . . . Not all markets require the same standards, but I feel that the same standards are now put on every market. (A6)

There were communication problems on both sides and working relationships and processes could be improved. Again, in this industry compliance to international standards made exporting difficult. Overseas competitors from mainly South America and Australia seemed to have gained a competitive edge concerning production costs whilst maintaining good quality. New Zealand's geographical distance from the most lucrative export markets such as those in the USA and Europe, together with the high shipping costs made export products more expensive and aggravated the declining competitiveness.

Firms in this industry tried to differentiate their goods from cheap labour countries and build up niche markets. Some high quality products such as superior cuts of meat and specialty Manuka honeys were established successfully as high quality niche products:

Just from the beginning I realised three main factors in dealing with Japan: one is quality and guarantee of quality; two is supply ability. You must be able to guarantee supply and that was very important with maintaining this relationship with this catalogue firm . . . And the third one was stability in price, so you have to take sometimes losses. (A9)

For other merchandise like New Zealand sheep wool, a niche market was not easily established. Wool is traded as a commodity. Coarse NZ wool is used for mainly

carpet making and like any other commodity is traded on the world market which is wide open to global competition. Exporters reported that the price for wool was in continuous fluctuation and world prices were low in 2005. Competition was fierce and came also from inside New Zealand itself: "There are 1 0 maybe 1 5 NZ wool exporters and each one tries to undercut the competitor in price . . . There is no

cooperation between the different exporters to get the price up." (AS)

When firms operate on small profit margins then the fluctuation of the New Zealand currency becomes a real problem. The wool exporters saw Australia as the main competitor for New Zealand wool on price and quality. Australian production facilities are state-of-the-art which impresses foreign customers who visit. Australian producers achieved better standardisation of cattle and sheep and so were able to maintain a better and more consistent quality. Thus producers have achieved a very good reputation in the U.S. market for sustained quality. Additionally, the Australian currency seemed to be more stable while New Zealand had great difficulties III

maintaining its currency within a realistic range (see Figure 1 1 - 1 2, Appendix 5).