The Country 01/10/25: Hunter McGregor talks to Hamish McKay

Our Shanghai-based red meat expert is on day one of The Golden Week, an eight-day holiday in China where everyone goes travelling. He comments on whether this holiday is good news for New Zealand’s red meat and how changes in restaurant culture and a struggling economy are affecting our exports.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course, Handa McGregor is a regular on our show.
He's our corresponded up there in China, grew up of
course here in New Zealand down south. I might have
a chicky comment about that a little bit later. Of course,
he's busy in the in the red meat trade up
there in China. Get a National Day. Holidays have just
started up there. A big travel event, isn't it. It's

(00:22):
all go.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yeah, good afternoon, Hamish, Yep, I'm doing a bit of
overtime today. It's the first day of an eight day holiday.
Each year, it's the National Day. Holidays kick off here
and it is a big travel day. You know that
they have two major holidays up here, which is Chinese
New Year, which sort of floats around between late January

(00:44):
and early February, that changes each year, and then this holiday,
which is a fixed holiday usually seven or eight days,
and you know Chinese New Years, but like Christmas, everyone
goes home and then this holiday everyone goes traveling. So yeah,
know she's busy alright at the moment. Yeah, some cities
empty out and then a whole group of people come

(01:06):
flying back and to have a look around. So I
know she should be all go in the terrast spots
around China at the moment, Now is that good for us?

Speaker 1 (01:14):
The old white tablecloth, silver service. They're going to be
eating our red mick, buying up plenty of it.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I would assume that most restaurants will be busy, but
you know, to be honest, you know, the high end
restaurants are struggling a bit here at the moment. They're
not doing as well, you know, and then you know
a lot of the travelers that will be coming in here,
they'll be going into eating local food. So you know,
it's quite an interesting change, you know in the F

(01:43):
and B scene here is that the middle range, the
middle band of restaurants are disappearing, the sort of value
for money places and it's either cheap Charlie or really expensive.
But you know, even some of those expensive places that
we supply, you know, a Mission Star place closed down
an the other day, been around for a while. Another

(02:04):
restaurant will replace it. But you know, there's always constant change.
And you know, even the top end here is struggling
a bit. You know what we're the ones was, but
you know there's still people going out and eating stuff,
so they'll plenty consumed.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Good to hear, Good to hear. What's your greatest challenge though,
in terms of the business that you do up.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
There at the moment, I just think generally the economy
here is struggling. People don't spend as much as they
used to do, so the business has changed. You know,
you just got to adjust to the market. And the
market's moved. It's not going to move back to what
it once was. So you just readjust and we're going

(02:44):
through another adjustment period and going, well, how can we
make this work because what was doing before wasn't working.
So yeah, and that's what happens in China. Things change
quickly and you've got to move with the market and
the way you go. Is it.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
A local reaction and the change that you say is
going to hang around or is it global? What's what's
sort of driving this? Well?

Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know the Chinese consumer that the average Chinese punter
is not not silly. They don't buy up things on debt,
you know, when when when they see see some some
clouds on the horizon, they put their money in their
pocket and save it. You know, they don't go out
and spend on credit cards. And but like like like
a lot of consumers in the West, so they're just

(03:28):
a bit more cautious on spending and going out and
doing things in general. And that's that's, that's what the
market we live in at the moment. That that that
that's the current position in China. And yeah, things will
change at some point, but I can't see it bounce
back to what it once was to pre COVID levels
or even during COVID when people are out spending quite

(03:49):
a lot of money. So you know, it is just
a new reality up here, and you just got to
adjusted business accordingly.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Absolutely. I can Lea's talk about some of the madness
that comes about with them. Is this holiday period you've
got up till the eighth of October. I mean the
roads are choker, you know, what's it like, you know,
trying to get accommodation and I know you've got a
bit of a story about parking in Shanghai and or
having a car in Shanghai.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, well, yeah, what they do. You know, China has
a hell of a lot of toll roads, you know,
so what they do during these holidays is they drop
all the toll roads. So all the there's no tolls
on the road. So you know, I'll give you an
example last night even this morning, I just just just
checked again. You know, going out of Shanghai and Nanjing,
it's about three hundred k's that we usually take about
three hours two hours forty five you know, a high

(04:38):
speeds that are told highway all the way through there.
You sit at one hundred and twenty all the way.
Last night I got up to nine hours to get there.
It's sitting on about eight hours at the moment. So
you know, the road, the choker, the infrastructure sort of
sort of gets gets overrun. You always here, but a
negative it's a negative media in the West about how

(04:58):
the ev structure doesn't can't sustain the cars on the road. Well,
the picture infrastructure gets overflown as well, you know, because
everyone's out there traveling at the same time. They will
do it at the end of the holiday. So in
the middle of the holiday it's quite good. But you
know this time of the year they jack up all
the prices for the hotels and everything like that as well.
We're looking at going to like a watertown near Shanghai

(05:22):
this holidays and usually about eight hundred remenb so two
hundred bucks a room, but they jack the prices up
to about three thousand room and bee which is about
six hundred bucks. So we're like, I'll flag that or
just stay our home. So just go for the day.
But you know, it's a busy time and stuff, but
you know, it is what it is, and still plenty

(05:44):
of opportunities around because lots of people there.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
You go, Hardy McGregor out of China. There, what an
interesting life that man leads looking after getting shifting our
red meat over there in China.