It's a long way from netball hoops to jumping through the complex hoops of doing business in China but Southland farmer Mike Wilkins is aiming as carefully at opportunities as his wife, former Silver Fern Donna Wilkins, shoots at goal.
The Wilkins operate one of Southland's biggest farming operations and one of the biggest diversified concerns in the country. Both are in China as part of a Bank of New Zealand agri-business delegation, called Port To Plate, tracing the flow of products in China from when they hit the port through to landing on consumers' plates; showcasing opportunities for exporters.
Wilkins Farming Ltd is now 40 years old and has done what many talk about but few achieve - diversification. They farm sheep, beef, deer, and dairy as well as cropping (small seeds, grain and brassicas for merchants, mills or livestock producers) and finishing stock. Not to mention grazing and a contracting/trucking business.
Donna Wilkins (also a New Zealand basketballer and double Olympian) works in the family business when netball commitments (she played for the Central Pulse this season) and three children aged 5 and under allow. It has been the deer industry, and deer velvet in particular, which is interesting the couple most.
They already export to China (and are also an exporter through the various co-operatives in the family's other businesses) but do so by shipping the "green" velvet to partners in Hong Kong. The raw material is then processed into pills, powder and the familiar dried slices stirred into tea or broth and revered by many Chinese as a treatment for, among other things, sexual dysfunction, arthritis, anaemia, osteoporosis and liver health.