NZTE refocusing for exporters, post-pandemic

Te Taurapa Tūhono | New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has embarked on a process to refocus its strategy in line with the evolving needs of New Zealand exporters, and the funding it has available.

As part of New Zealand’s COVID response in 2020, the government allocated temporary extra funding to NZTE ($54m a year, for four years) from the COVID Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF). This enabled the agency to respond to exporters’ specific needs through the pandemic.

This investment allowed NZTE to double the number of ‘Focus’ customers from 700 to 1,400, offer more grants, and deliver specific services relevant to the pandemic, such as supply chain advisory. 

The investment was also used to scale-up NZTE’s presence in the high-value markets of Australia and USA, and to put in place a range of new services through digital channels.  

The growth in the success of NZTE customers during this time is worth noting. In the last three years the export deals achieved by customers almost doubled from $2.3b p.a to $4.5b p.a.  During the same period international growth outcomes (the specific in-market outcomes by exporters) increased from 1,401 p.a to 2,511 p.a.* Net Promoter scores stayed strong at around +75.

In addition, NZTE took the opportunity to develop a new suite of digital tools, content and channels, allowing it to deliver services to a broader range of exporters. The investment in digital transformation during this time has seen the myNZTE platform receive more than 900,000 page views and a monthly return rate of 23% for June 2023. 

As planned, in June 2024 the CRRF funding comes to an end for all agencies, including NZTE. This reduction will be partially offset by an increase in the baseline funding of $10m from July 2024, as announced in the 2023 Budget.

It is time for NZTE to move beyond the ‘recovery’ phase of how it supports New Zealand exporters in response to the pandemic. It is now working to put in place the right structure and resources to deliver on the priorities of the evolving export market, both in New Zealand and globally. 

NZTE is now in a period of consultation with its people and is proposing changes to roles, property, sponsorships, consultants, contractors, and grants. Once this process concludes, NZTE will share with stakeholders what this will mean by the end of 2023.

At the end of this process, NZTE will be supporting more exporters, 
with more value, to higher-value markets than it did pre-COVID.

*NZTE’s FY23 results are subject to final audit.