Food HQ chief executive Victoria Hatton signs a memorandum of understanding, watched by Zhouzhuang Town mayor Deng Hua, international relations officer for the Kunshan Foreign Affairs Office Billie Chu, chairman of the standing committee of the Kunshan Municipal People's Congress Feng Renxin, and Dianshanhu Town Mayor Xu Jun.
Food HQ chief executive Victoria Hatton signs a memorandum of understanding, watched by Zhouzhuang Town mayor Deng Hua, international relations officer for the Kunshan Foreign Affairs Office Billie Chu, chairman of the standing committee of the Kunshan Municipal People's Congress Feng Renxin, and Dianshanhu Town Mayor Xu Jun.
A visit to Kunshan, China earlier this year by a Palmerston North delegation including mayor Grant Smith has led to an agreement for the two cities to work together on groundbreaking initiatives in food innovation and technology.
Last week, a delegation from Kunshan visited Palmerston North to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) around the agreement and to attend the E Tipu Boma Agri Summit in the city.
The MoU is between FoodHQ in Palmerston North and the East China Agricultural Science and Technology Centre in Kunshan and will help facilitate bilateral co-operation in modern agriculture, smart farming, and talent cultivation for companies, entrepreneurs and research institutes in both countries.
The idea of the agreement began in January this year when Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith was in Kunshan as part of a small delegation visiting China and Japan. During his time in Kunshan, in-depth discussions took place and explored possible co-operation in the AgriTech and food science sectors between the two cities.
These discussions led to Food HQ chief executive Dr Victoria Hatton going to Kunshan in April to help put an agreement in place. The Chinese delegation then came to Palmerston North last week for the MoU signing and the Agri summit as well as visits to Massey University, New Zealand Plant and Food Research, The Factory, and Goodman Fielder in Longburn to explore business opportunities with the city.
During their time in Palmerston North, delegates visited a range of businesses and organisations in the city.
Smith said the agreement shows the importance of Palmerston North’s international relationships in bringing trade and economic development opportunities to the city.
“Partnerships like this show how frequent interactions can lead to enduring friendship and fruitful collaboration. This initiative will bring Palmy and Kunshan’s brightest minds to collaborate on areas of mutual interest in agricultural technology, food safety, and sustainable agriculture. Not only that but both parties will work on bringing the most promising research opportunities to the market both in New Zealand and China and on a wider global scale.”
With issues around climate change and food security so important around the world at the moment, he said one of the agreement’s main goals was to identify a joint research project for collaboration that focuses on developing practical solutions to real-world problems.
A delegation from Kunshan visited Palmerston North last week and met with mayor Grant Smith, council officers and representatives of a range of agricultural and food-related businesses in the community.
“Palmerston North spearheads food innovation nationally with more than 3000 scientists and researchers across the city, the bulk of whom are working on working in this important export sector for New Zealand. With the highest concentration of food research and development in the Southern Hemisphere, having this opportunity to share knowledge and facilities with another economic and scientific powerhouse will enable us to mutually enhance our capabilities and deliver cutting-edge products to the global market.”
The agreement, and others like it, put Palmerston North on the global map, he said, when it came to “bold, innovative ideas and tangible benefits”.
Those benefits are widespread, he said.
“[They are] not just for our educational institutes but for our growers, manufacturers and the service industries that support them.”
Palmy’s history with Kunshan goes back to the mid-1990s. In 1996 the two cities signed a “friendship coty agreement” and the relationship had developed since then. In 2017, a mayoral-led city delegation visited Kunshan to revitalise the relationship and explore possible education links. A group of Palmy education providers visited Kunshan in 2018, and now education connections are beginning to grow as well as others such as this latest agreement.
The city has an estimated population of between 1.6 and 2 million people. It is based in the Yangtze River Delta, which is the most economically developed area in China. With Shanghai on the east and Suzhou on the west, it is the gateway of Jiangsu Province in the east.
Smith said he looks forward to the relationship between the two cities developing further in the future.
“Working together toward better outcomes for our people and communities is exactly what the 30-year friendship between Palmerston North and Kunshan City was founded on. It will be very exciting to see what the top minds of these two forward-thinking cities can achieve together in the future.”
