“We want to congratulate the government, particularly Minister Groser, for their determination and patience in seeing this deal through.” Horticulture New Zealand president, Julian Raine, said. “This is a goal that has looked at times to be almost impossible to score, and they’ve finally done it,”

The industry body believes that the most critical result in the deal for New Zealand horticulture exporters is the reduction of tariffs to Japan. This is expected to have a significant impact on the earnings of growers of kiwifruit, buttercup squash, capsicum, onions and virtually all other horticulture exports to Japan. 

Japan is New Zealand horticulture’s third largest market and the elimination of tariffs will benefit New Zealand producers by an estimated $28 million per year.

HortNZ said that market access is an issue the New Zealand horticulture industry works with on a daily basis and it is a key aspect of the industry’s goal to achieve value of $10 billion by 2020.

“As always, we keep an eye on opportunities in markets all over the world,” Raine said. “We will now be keen to see what impact the settling of the TPP agreement will have on other markets in the region, not included in the original twelve signatories.

“We look forward to capitalising on this very significant trade agreement.”