While New Zealand’s food and beverage (F&B) sector has long punched above its weight across Asia Pacific export markets, transitioning from domestic success into developing sustainable offshore export growth markets requires more than a good product and clean-green origin story.
Drawing on Incite’s fourteen years of opening and growing Asia Pacific export markets for global food and beverage brands, here’s a practical guide for New Zealand F&B exporters navigating expansion in this region. 
Common Challenges: Pricing, Patience & Preparedness
The most frequently encountered hurdle? Launching new export markets takes time, costs money and has a lagging ROI. From appointing a distributor to confirming retail listings and seeing a first PO, the lead time often spans 6 to 9 months or more, depending on the market.
Most export markets across Southeast and North Asia are pay-to-play markets, meaning significant investment is required to secure retail listings in the local equivalents of Woolworths, Pak’n Save and New World prior to obtaining any sales.
Brands that underestimate this timeline or fail to factor in the required investment can often hurry the process and end up with sub-optimal distribution partnerships and/or strategies in place.
Premium pricing is another issue. New Zealand products frequently enter global markets with export pricing above international competitors, placing pressure on retailers and distributors to make the pricing work, especially in price-sensitive Southeast Asian markets. Achieving a viable price position within the category is critical to achieving longer term survival and all parties (brands, distributors and retailers) need to make a viable margin.
Incite builds sustainable Asia Pacific export markets for food and beverage brands in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. More from Cameron Gordon in the latest issue here
