The free trade agreement (FTA) signed last year between New Zealand and Malaysia kicked into force yesterday, bringing the kiwifruit trade an immediate drop in tariffs.
Signed in October, the deal will cut all tariffs on 99.5 per cent of New Zealand’s exports to Malaysia within seven years, reported NewstalkZB.
A 15 per cent tariff on New Zealand kiwifruit will be cut immediately, according to the country’s Trade Minister Tim Groser.
Malaysia has been a focus of single-desk kiwifruit marketer Zespri’s efforts to increase sales in South East Asia.
“South East Asia is growing very strongly,” Zespri CEO Lain Jager told Fruitnet.com earlier this year.
“Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia – there’s a whole group of markets where we’re seeing pretty strong growth, in the order of 100 per cent a year, albeit off a low base. We probably do 2m trays in South East Asia.”
The tariff elimination will give New Zealand kiwifruit a better competitive line against rival Southern Hemisphere supplier Chile, whose kiwifruit exporters have been giving Asian markets greater attention in recent seasons.
