Prime Minister John Key begins the second leg of his Latin American tour today, stopping off in Bogota for a historic visit - the first by a New Zealand leader to Colombia.
Although Colombia is renowned for its silver, gold and emeralds, its trade with New Zealand is mainly in more pragmatic goods such as coffee, cruise vessels and insecticides.
There are minimal links between the two countries, but Mr Key said it was worth building those.
"Colombia is quite a big country and it's growing very rapidly ... So it's likely to emerge as quite a significant player over time in Latin America.
"They are quite like-minded on matters like trade and the like. So we are hopeful we can make real progress in Colombia."
