Four brands dubbed as New Zealand National Brands at NEXT Summit (Sky 2020)

Photo: Award ceremony for New Zealand National Brands is held at NEXT Summit (Sky 2020), a global online plus offline event, on Wednesday. 

BEJING, Nov. 25  (Xinhua) -- Four New Zealand brands, namely Fonterra, Zespri, Destination Queenstown and Silver Fern Farms, were dubbed as New Zealand National Brands at the NEXT Summit (Sky 2020), a global online plus offline event held on Wednesday.   

The New Zealand National Brands program, co-organized by the NEXT Federation and  the New Zealand Business Roundtable in China, aims to recognise New Zealand National Brands on a global stage and seeks to add value to reputation building, brand promotion and economic trade development of New Zealand in major global markets through integrating and sharing resources of global partners.

This year, the global independent panel for the New Zealand National Brands compromises 29 luminaries worldwide who are all experts in their respective field, including government, economics, business, health and environmental sciences and humanities. 

The results showed that members of the panel are keen to identify brands that have an obvious impact on national economic and social development, and promote scientific and technological innovation. 

Fonterra is pleased to be acknowledged together with such a prestigious range of brands, said Simon Tucker, Director of Global Stakeholder Affairs of Fonterra, adding that the NEXT Federation's role as a platform for innovation and transformation and its commitment to improving global innovation, cooperation and sustainability resonate strongly with Fonterra. 

According to Tucker, Fonterra intends to deliver value in China by staying in-tune with customers and matching Fonterra's dairy expertise with customer tastes.

Zespri, which also received the New Zealand National Brand Award, has recently signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with local government representatives in Sichuan Province of China, confirming its intention to explore a local commercial partnership. 

The partnership is part of Zespri's efforts to strengthen protection for plant variety rights in China as well as to help deliver the world's premium quality kiwifruit throughout the year.

Michael Fox, Head of Communications and External Relations at Zespri, acknowledged the support of the Chinese government for these efforts. 

He said Zespri was pleased to be recognised alongside other great New Zealand companies, with Zespri working hard to build trust and support through great tasting, healthy and safe fruit grown in a way that is good for the environment and which makes positive contributions to communities.

Like all destinations, organisations and people, 2020 has been incredibly difficult for Queenstown, noted Ann Lockhart, CEO of Destination Queenstown, adding that Queenstown is focusing the efforts on responding to the challenges facing the tourism industry and trying to ensure that tourism could once again become one of the pillar industries in the country. 

Simon Limmer, Chief Executive of Silver Fern Farms, said that New Zealand's environment produces some of the finest natural red meat on the planet, and Silver Fern Farms makes efforts to take things to the next level. 

After receiving the award, Simon Limmer, on behalf of New Zealand's leading processor and marketer of grass-fed red meat, remains committed to working with partners to provide premium red meat to more consumers in China and around the world.

The winners of the awards are in a unique position to enhance the value of their brand and the brand of New Zealand in existing, developing and emerging markets, to achieve better social and economic benefits.  

The NEXT Summit (Sky 2020), held jointly by the NEXT Federation and China Economic Information Service (CEIS), debuted worldwide on Wednesday. Against the background of the global fight against the pandemic, the summit with the theme of Sharing Advantaged Resource consisted of opening ceremony, keynote speeches, award ceremony for New Zealand National Brands, and award ceremony for "Hurricane Lamp".  (Edited by Yang Yifan with Xinhua Silk Road, yangyifan@xinhua.org)