Tauranga's most successful sister city visit - in which aquaculture featured - ended in the modern, growing Chinese city of Yantai yesterday.
The Opotiki group, accompanying the Tauranga delegation, struck two aquaculture deals which have the potential to pour millions of dollars into the Bay economy.
Tauranga-based North Island Mussel Processors will be processing thousands of tonnes of premium greenshell mussels for the Shandong Oriental Ocean Group's new retail chain in China. The country's largest seafood company, it plans to open 500 stores within three years.
On Wednesday, Oriental Ocean - that night's farewell banquet was held in its Yantai hotel - indicated it was happy to form a joint venture and help develop the Eastern Seafarms off the coast of Opotiki.
The project, first growing mussel and then moving to other fish species, has a target of $250 million turnover within 15 years.
Oriental Ocean, likely to make a large cash investment, will lend its expertise in growing sea cucumber, a delicacy in China, and fin fish such as hapuka, which also fetches a high price.
Mussel growing begins off Opotiki in September and Eastern Seafarms will be able to trial sea cucumber by April, taking between 18 months to two years to grow it to commercial size of 150-200g.
Oriental Ocean president Professor Che Shi - one of the wealthiest and most influential people in China - will visit the Bay in September, as part of the Yantai delegation to Tauranga.
He will sit down with the Eastern Seafarms board and draw up a contract, and is prepared to send some of his technical staff to the Bay to develop the sea cucumber. Oriental Ocean processes 12,000 tonnes of sea cucumber a year in Yantai.
Software developer Pingar LP, made an agreement at Yantai University for one of its professors to visit Tauranga for two to three months to see how the Pingar search engine technology can fit into the university's own research.
"We think there are complementary technologies in capturing information for the internet user," said Pingar co-founder Peter Wren-Hilton. "We have an understanding of further collaboration and it could lead to something bigger."
Education Tauranga, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the Bay of Plenty English Language School made useful contacts to attract international students to Tauranga.
Graeme Lind, chairman of Education Tauranga, will follow up discussions in Yantai in October, after Greenpark Primary's sister school visit to Hansin Elementary School in Seoul, South Korea.
"We have interest from the upper level of tertiary schooling in Yantai, and we've made two contacts in Beijing through the Ministry of Education here," said Mr Lind. "The Yantai Vocational College [polytechnic] have 16,000 students all in residence and it would like Tauranga teachers to come to its summer camps.
"That doesn't fit in with the trained teachers back home because they are back at school, but we could send third year [tertiary] students to Yantai to do the [English] teaching," he said.
A feature of the series of business meetings over three days in Yantai was the absence of Municipal People's Government officials - showing the normally formal politicians here were prepared to let the businesspeople get on with it.
This was recognition of the trust and respect that has developed in the 24-year sister city relationship between Tauranga and Yantai, which has a population of 6.5 million and companies like General Motors, LG and Toyota have established manufacturing operations in the city.
"This visit was the most productive," said Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby, making his third visit to Yantai. "There is a clear intention by Yantai to do business with Tauranga and Bay of Plenty.
"By utilising 24 years of history between the two cities, we are now seeing very tangible business outcomes - in aquaculture, IT with Pingar and education/tourism," he said.
"My goal has always been to use the relationship to create employment in the Bay through exporting. We are now at the personal level of developing business opportunities, and it's credit to those who have come to Yantai before and done the hard yards."
Tauranga will make its next Mayoral visit to Yantai in 2013, but Mr Crosby said he expected "targeted visits" by businesses and organisations between the two cities over the next three years.
The Opotiki group farewelled the "Bay's new golden boy", Professor Che at his hotel with typical rousing Maori entertainment, guitar, singing and poi display, and former Auckland University professor, 80-year-old Dr Ranginui Walker, joined in the haka.
* Graham Skellern's trip has been equally funded by the Bay of Plenty Times, Environment Bay of Plenty and Export NZ Bay of Plenty.
Sister city Yantai brings two aquaculture deals
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