The Country 16/09/25: Hunter McGregor talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Shanghai-based correspondent on Indonesia importing one million dairy cows over the next five years, an oppressive July and August, and a depressed Chinese economy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's our guy in a very hot Shanghai, a kiwi
selling New Zealand venison and red meat to the Chinese.
His name is Hunter McGregor. Hunter. Before I talk about
how hot it's been this summer in Shanghai, I want
to talk about Indonesia. You sent us through a really
interesting little story about Indonesia aiming to import one million

(00:21):
dairy cows over five years. But the stunning fact for
a population of two hundred and eighty four million people
of only as it stands at the moment, if your
numbers are correct, got two hundred and twenty thousand dairy cows. Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, it is interesting. They're going
to put a over money and then try to import
some dairy cows and grow their own production and within
the country. So interesting to see how that goes. It
will be a challenging environment for dairy cows Indonesia. She's
pretty hot and humid all year round. But you know,
the world's changing, and you know, we'll see how that
plays out in the future. You know that's going to

(00:57):
affect the demand out of Indonesia for for new the
on dairy products.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Absolutely, if they increase the size of their dairy herd
by five hundred percent. It will make a bit of
a difference. Mind you, They're trying to provide free meals
to eighty three million children and expectant mothers, so they
might need a few more than a million dairy cows
to do that. Talk to me. You talked about the
heat in Indonesia. How tough that would be on a

(01:21):
dairy cow. How tough is the heat in Shanghai on
a Rocksburgh lad.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh, it's been very tough. You know. August this year
has been one of the hottest months ever, you know,
with records going back out about one hundred and fifty
two years, and they've had twenty seven days of the
temperature over thirty five degrees during the day. The twenty
six of those in a row, we did get down

(01:48):
to about thirty overnight. So you know, July and August
in Shanghai is not a good time to visit. I
wouldn't recommend it air conditioning. It's hot and humid. It's
not a dry heat. It's a very hot heat. But
you know, shanghaist all reasonably warm, was sort of well
above thirties most days at the moment are starting to
call off. Hopefully we'll call off in the next week

(02:09):
or two, but the rest of China is starting to
call down and your head into to autumn. So you know,
it is what it is, and we just got to
just got to keep keep the airck on running. I
think at the moment.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
The heat means a lot of restaurants and bars continue
to struggle. My note oubt they sell about a cold beer,
but hot meat maybe not. How's it affecting your business?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Oh, that's pretty tough. You know, everyone's sort of you know, operating. Yeah,
it is what restaurants need to do now to get
people in the doors, do events and do different activities
and things like that. So you know, it is what
it is, and you're just got to play that. You're
just going to play what's in front of you and
people are just so you know, the business is seasonally

(02:52):
down and that's the way it is, and hopefully gets
a bit cooller and people get out a bit more
and can enjoy some some balcony and gardens and things
like that. So let's see how.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Every time I chat to you, I use that terrible
cliche and I'll do it again green Shoots, because I
reckon the Chinese economy has to come right eventually. You're
less optimistic than I am, and you're there.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Yeah, she's a tough market up here, Jamie.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
You know what I see with your talking to everyone
is that everyone's business is down. It's tough.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
People aren't spending as much as they used to do,
and you know, for the foreseeable future, this is the
marketbook that we're living in. And you know, it's just
just sort of the evolution of of what's happening up here.
There's a bit of pressure with regards to tariffs and
things like that. And I'll give you one example of
how things have changed, you know, from the last couple
of years to now.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I was out over the weekend with my family picking
grapes at a grape place where you go and pick
grapes and pick some vegetables and stuff. And they've got
a lovely lamb restaurant there. And you know that they
process small lambs, are you you sort of probably ten
to fifteen kilos each, And we had a lamb shoulder

(04:04):
which sort of fell apart and you didn't need a knife,
and it was beautiful. But I was talking to the
restaurant owner and he's saying in the past they would
be processing sort of sixty to eighty lambs a day
through their restaurant. At the moment they're sort of struggling
to do ten. So that's how much that one restaurant
is down from the last two three years ago. And

(04:25):
you put that across the country and you know the
obviously places doing well, but most of them are struggling.
And this is the reality we live. And so everyone's
going to change their business and adjust and continue to
move forward. Now with a big population, there's still opportunities here,
but how harder than what it was in the past.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Let's quickly finish on your national holiday. I think from
the first to the seventh of October each year. As
you say, it's a press of heat at the height
of summer, can get very cold in winter. I've been
lucky enough to be to China a couple of times
and the shoulders of the season spring and autumn, I
and it was beautiful. So that's the time of the

(05:02):
year when you guys take your holidays.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, no, we're coming up to the you know, the
first few days of October each year a fantastic time
of the year.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
We're the wise and it's national.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Holidays, so you know, Chinese New Year is a bit
like Christmas, where everyone sort of goes home and spends
time with family. National holidays is when everyone's out traveling,
so you know it's going to be busy the whole
the whole country. Beyond the move what sort of happens
in the with all the toll roads up here and
there are many, they drop all the tolls during the
public holidays and everyone jumps on the road.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
So the first couple of days, in the last.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
Couple of days, the roads, the big roads you sort
of want to avoid. But rest of the time is
quite good, so looking forward to you know, the kids
quite enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
They've had sort of July and August off.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And then they have a ten seven days in the
first week of October off as well, so you know
it's good. It's going to be good fun and there'll
be plenty of activity around China at that time.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Hey, Handa McGregor, thanks for your time, really appreciate it.
We'll catch you again in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
Heer, thanks.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Jemi