In China paua, known as abalone, is considered special. It's a must-have dish to impress banquet guests.
Until now most commercial paua fished in New Zealand waters has been canned. Miller says that has traditionally been the most practical way of exporting the shellfish.
However, he says by doing less to the fish: simply catching it, chilling it and flying it direct to market, there's a hitherto unrealised opportunity to add considerable value. Black abalone is rare. There are only two fisheries in the world, in New Zealand and in Australia. Quotas are tight, so available quantities are limited - Miller says the demand has always outstripped demand.
Yet until now it hasn't be easy turning New Zealand's catch into a premium product with a suitably premium price.
Fishermen and private investors formed PauaCo 18 months ago with the goal of moving paua up-market. Miller says the Tmall seafood promotion makes that job easier. The challenge now is to raise brand awareness. PauaCo is just one of a number of New Zealand seafood exporters using Tmall to reach Chinese consumers.
Mike Arand, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Commissioner in Shanghai, says Alibaba dominates internet retailing in China. If China isn't already the world's largest e-commerce market, it soon will be. Last year the number of Chinese online shoppers passed the 300 million mark. Consequently the online companies servicing Chinese consumers operate on a massive scale. The privately owned but soon to go public online trader is already bigger than Amazon and eBay combined.
"NZTE is dipping a toe in the water with the seafood promotion. It puts us in touch with millions of consumers and gives us a chance to learn how to use Tmall," says Arand.
He says seafood is today's focus: "Few people know you can get live New Zealand seafood here in China." However, he says there's a bigger picture: getting to tell New Zealand's food and beverage story. "There is some knowledge of our food in China, some already might know a little about our lamb or our wine - now we have the opportunity to tell them more."
The seafood promotion got off to a good start, Arand says in the first 12 hours there were 157 purchases of pacific oysters.
The world has never seen anything quite like Alibaba. The organisation was originally set up for businesses to sell to each other, but it has since moved way beyond its original purpose. As well as the business-to-consumer Tmall site there's TaoBao, where consumers can sell to each other. Alibaba now handles half of China's online and mobile payments. Recently it has begun operating an online bank.
Alibaba had a humble start. It began in founder Jack Ma's apartment in 1999. Today it has 24,000 employees and makes a profit of around NZ$500 million on a turnover of more than NZ$4 billion a year.
Economic development minister Steven Joyce had a first-hand taste of the company's scale and the potential for online retail in China when he visited Alibaba in November.
Joyce says he arrived at the company's Hangzhou headquarters the day after Single's Day - the local equivalent of Valentine's Day. It's a day when online retailers traditionally hold sales with sizeable discounts.
He says on the morning he arrived at Alibaba there was a huge stack of parcels on the ground outside the building. At first he though that meant there was an office move under way, but he was told the parcels belonged to staff members who had their online purchases delivered to their workplace.
Chinese online retailers sold goods worth 36 billion Renminbi on Single's Day. Joyce says the virtual tills rang up the first billion around 45 minutes after midnight.
Joyce says New Zealand is "very much on the radar at Alibaba and it is certain they are clear to help us realise the trade potential of the opportunity". Joyce says it helps that Alibaba CEO Jonathan Lu is a frequent visitor to New Zealand.
Relationships are central to doing business in China. Joyce says the relationship is good on a number of levels and has been for a long time: "We were one of the first Western countries to recognise China and the first to have a free trade deal. That matters to the Chinese."
He says the Asian opportunity is huge. "The Chinese middle class is growing rapidly and Southeast Asia is going through the same process. At the moment there are around half a billion middle-income people in Asia, that's comparable with Europe or North America. However, by 2030 there will be 3.2 billion middle-income people in Asia while the numbers in Europe and North America will be the same as today."
Those growing incomes mean changes in consumer preferences and changes in food preferences; changes that New Zealand is well placed to meet. Joyce says the challenge is going to be in gearing up to meet the opportunity: "It's all so massive compared with the scale New Zealand companies are used to dealing with."
That's where government fits into the picture. Joyce says there are four government resources exporters can use to help when doing business in China.
"NZTE can help make up for lack of scale on the ground in overseas markets. It's below the radar, but the NZ export credit office is important. MFAT (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) has a significant role conducting the orchestra and there's Callaghan Innovation to handle matters at home in New Zealand."
"NZTE can help make up for lack of scale on the ground in overseas markets. It's below the radar, but the NZ export credit office is important. MFAT (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade) has a significant role conducting the orchestra and there's Callaghan Innovation to handle matters at home in New Zealand."
Groser also points to the recent agreement allowing direct trading of the New Zealand dollar against the Chinese currency, which also cuts the cost, risk and complexity of doing business in China.
"The winners will be companies that evolve their business models from exporters to in-market player.
"Businesses should take advantage of efficiencies in freight logistics, labour and tax, while also optimising their business to take advantage of the free trade agreement."
Joyce says Alibaba provides the means for smaller New Zealand exporters to reach a huge market: "Chinese distribution is complex and there are many risks. Alibaba succeeds because it does an end run around these problems. It's not the whole answer and it may not be for everyone, but it is an option."
Arand says reducing the complexity is essential for smaller exporters: "There are a lot of steps in the traditional distribution process and each one introduces risk."
He says Tmall is just the connection, but it gives access to nearly 600 million consumers. Companies need to develop their own shopfronts on the site to do the actual selling, but he says the cost of setting up is relatively small - there are no ongoing payments. He says for exporters: "it is compelling to at least try something with Tmall".
Buying fresh food online is already well-established with China's middle classes. Arand says the people working for NZTE in Shanghai are typical of the target market; they frequently buy food online: "It's much easier than jumping on a bike and heading to a market." He says it isn't necessarily cheap, but the quality of food purchased that way is stunning. Though many retailers offer a 100 per cent money back guarantee, the return rate is lower than 0.5 per cent because they are shipping on quality. He says: "That's something New Zealand exporters can build on".
Arand says the seafood promotion gives NZTE a baseline to judge the likely response to future projects. He says there are already talks under way for a fruit push and his organisation is discussing potential projects with meat producers.
And it isn't just China, Alibaba is breaking into other Asian markets. Arand says if we can get it right, Tmall could put our food and beverage exporters in touch with a billion well-heeled consumers.
Alibaba CEO Jonathan Lu.
Unlocking the B2C puzzle for NZ
Trade Minister Tim Groser and Alibaba CEO Jonathan Lu "cooked up the idea" of using T-Mall as a platform for selling New Zealand food and beverage in China.
Groser stopped off in Shanghai during the Prime Minister's recent visit to make an "impromptu launch" of the seafood platform.
"Jonathan is a huge fan of New Zealand," says Groser. "My instinct is this could be huge for NZ and help many of our smaller exporters.
Alibaba will launch on the New York and Shanghai stock exchanges later this year in what is expected to be the biggest PO in US history, smashing Facebook's debut.
