The Country 29/10/25: Hunter McGregor talks to Jamie Mackay

Our Shanghai-based correspondent is hopeful Trump can cut a trade deal with President Xi at Apec, for the good of us all. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We have been talking about Chicago, the Windy City, one
of the great cities of the world. Let's go to
another great city of the world, Shanghai, where we find
a boy from Roxburgh. His name is Hunter McGregor, selling
red meat and venison to the Chinese. Hey, Hunter, is
it a big deal in China at the moment? The
fact that I think tomorrow our time, Trump will meet

(00:22):
Jijingping for this pull side meeting or whatever you want
to call it, ahead of the APEC meetings.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Good afternoon, Jamie. Yeah, sure, it's an important meeting. It's
two big trading powers meeting. So it's going to be
interesting to see what actually comes out of it, because
your guess is as good as a miner as what
actually happens with that. You never know what's going to
happen with Trump.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, I think one thing there, Hunter, You can put
the house on Trump trying to get him with a
dominant handshake. Look, the American farmers are going to be
really interested in the outcome of this meeting because the
biggest export market for them for their sawyer beans was China.
They've been getting nothing in there at all.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, it's been fascinating that the soyerbean market. China's been
replaced by Brazil, Argentina and Russia. You know, half nearly
half of all soybeans in the US used to come
into China, so it's billions of dollars and this year
the Chinese haven't brought anything, so there will be high
on the agenda, I would assume, and probably an easy

(01:21):
one to fix. But you know, you just think there's
more soyer beans in the American system. So that's probably
why the Americans able to produce a lot more milk
at the moment because feed prices are probably a lot
cheaper than what they usually are, So that effects the
New zealandairy farmer as well in the long term.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Talk to me about the Chinese pork price at the
moment and what's the side effects for us here in
New Zealand as a meat exporting nation.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Well, yeah, it's interesting. It's currently down ten percent year
on year, mainly because production has been up a little
bit more and demand side is quite weak. But what
usually had things with protein prices meat, with pork, chicken, beef,
lamb everything in China is that the pork price usually

(02:09):
sets the sort of floor price. So if the pork
price goes up, everything goes up. And if the pork
price goes down, everything goes down. So it's going to
be interesting to see what happened, you know week, there's
a week we could demand at the moment. Now, usually
demand picks up at the last the end of the
last half of the last quarter of each year. We're
not really seeing that at the moment. So I'll be

(02:29):
interested to see what actually happens with the price in
the next few months because it will affect other protein prices.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
So no signs of recovery in the Chinese economy domestically.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Oh, it's just ticking along as it has all year.
And now I was talking to another person that's involved
in a in a New Zealand agricultural company, and you
know they're finding it tough as well, and they don't
see there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
It's just sticking along. There'll be a bit of a
pick up with events and things like that heading into
you know, end of the year Christmas parties and then

(03:02):
to Chinese New Year events. But you know, it's tough.
It's really tough out there.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
It would certainly be helpful if Trump could do some
sort of deal with she while he was at APEC.
Let's just finish on direct flights between India and China.
I'm surprised that these have been off the table for
about five years. There's a bit of a Nigel between India,
a growing superpower, and China that wants to be the
ultimate superpower.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah. Well, there's always been a bit of ani there's
a contested sort of border area and you know, up
on the hills and in their Cashmere, which is somewhere
you know, around between China and India. But you know,
prior to COVID, there was about four hundred flights daily
I'm sorry weekly between China and India, and then after

(03:48):
COVID they stopped, and you know, with with tension sort
of ramping up, they haven't returned until you know, Trump's
sort of pushed India and China a bit closer together
through his his maneuvers or whatever he wants to call them.
And you know, so that the first flight started again
after five years yesterday actually, and they'll they'll, they'll, they'll

(04:10):
there'll be a lot more. So, you know, it's interesting,
you've got two you know, very large populations, two very
large markets and they haven't really been communicating with each other.
That's starting to thaw and we'll see how that that
that that develops.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Only Trump can serve us. Hey, Handa McGregor and Shanghai,
thanks for your time

Speaker 2 (04:28):
Yea, thanks you, Amy,