April 1, 2025 • 4 mins
Our Shanghai-based correspondent doesn’t necessarily agree with Ray Smith’s take on the Chinese economy. He also tells us about Tomb Sweeping Day on Friday and welcomes the arrival of the first of the season’s NZ kiwifruit.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our guy in China is Hunter McGregor, based out of Shanghai,
selling venison and red meat to the Chinese. Now, what
are the Chinese thinking about Liberation Day tomorrow and Trump's tariffs?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, good afternoon, Jamie. China has already got a few
tariffs on, so they're just like the rest of the world.
They're waiting and seeing what's going to happen. Because it's
going to be challenging for some and not challenging for others.
So let's see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
We've chatted on the show already today to Ray Smith,
director General of MPI, who was recently in China, and
he said he felt the vibe. These are my words,
not as on the ground, regarding a recovery in the economy.
In the economy, why are you such a pessimist?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm actually I actually go talk to people across a
range of industries all the time.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Part of the.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Research I do for the show, Jamie is I actually
get to the pub sometimes and yan away to people
in different industries. It's pretty tough, but you know what
I'm seeing is, you know this time of the year,
it's heading into spring, there's a lot more positivity around
because we're coming out of winter. That's pretty normal. Restaurants
are slowly opening up their balconies and that people are
(01:11):
going out from hibernating from winter. But there isn't a
massive uptick in people going out and spending money and
doing that sort of thing. It's just a normal sort
of seasonal spring thing, you know, and when to put
it into perspective, you know, I was talking to the
company that does my logistics.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Or call store.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
They run a whole weep of call stores around China actually,
and they were saying in Shanghai they're consolidating and reducing
their footprint of call stores here because what's happened is
that this year, from last year to this year, they're
down sixty percent in delivery. You know, they're still servicing
the same amount of locations, it's just that there's not
(01:54):
that much pull through from where they're delivering, you know,
the restaurants and food service that the that they're delivering
the volume is significantly down, you know, And that's what
I'm hearing all the time. You know, it's there's a
lot of wishful thinking about Yep, things are going to
get better, you know, as you said, there might be
a bit of a vibe. Hey, look, China is a
pretty cool place and there's lots of things happening, but
(02:16):
the reality is it's still pretty tough on the ground
for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Talk to me about tom Sweeping Holiday, which is this
Friday in China.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, it's a yearly national holiday, and you know, Toms
Sweeping is pretty self explanatory, you get. You know, Traditionally
people will go back to their family terms and clean
them up for spring and things like that. Also, what
people do is they burn what they call pape. They
could burn paper, money and paper objects and stuff for
their ancestors to have things in the afterlife and things
(02:47):
like that. So what happens you can see it in
the most streets in China. Now, they'll start at night time.
People will be out sort of draw a sort of
a half circle on the on the on the pavement
and burn a few bits and pieces. It's more and
then down south they sort of that they offer food
and things like that. So it's a pretty important time,
(03:08):
you know, just to remember you know, people that have
come before you and they do a bit of a
spring clean and things. So we've got Friday off for me,
I will be probably taking my family to a lovely
restaurant enjoying some good New Zealand food.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
When we chatted to you a couple of weeks ago,
you were looking forward to enjoying some good New Zealand food.
New season Kiwi fruit. Have you tried it yet?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I got my hands on some red Kiwi fruit. They
were fantastic, really good. Haven't clean cleaned them all goods
A couple more on my fridge at the moment. But
you know, Desprey does very well this time of the year.
You know, all the food, all the fruit shops, all
the supermarkets, their major sort of stand or the major
sort of promotion is zspre product at the moment. It's fantastic.
(03:54):
And I saw I went to pick out one of
my children from from school the other day yesterday last night,
and one of the local fruit shops there their main
stand by the door was Desprey, you know, which is great,
you know. And and the interesting thing is that with
all the marketing stuff that thissbre does is that it's
not New Zealand Esprey, it's just Zesprey. So you know,
(04:15):
the brands that powerful, that strong. You go in any supermarket,
especially in the major city and the major.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Sort of section of the fruit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The focal point is Thisspre Kiwi fruit, which is fantastic
and looking forward to getting my hands on.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Some gold and a bit of green ladder you know
when they arrive, so which is good. And then we've
got apples. You did on fresh apples should be arriving
soon as well, which would be great because I enjoy
a good kiwi epple as well as you'd expect.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Hunter, a boy straight out of Roxburgh where they grow
great apples as well.
Our guy in China is Hunter McGregor, based out of Shanghai,
selling venison and red meat to the Chinese. Now, what
are the Chinese thinking about Liberation Day tomorrow and Trump's tariffs?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well, good afternoon, Jamie. China has already got a few
tariffs on, so they're just like the rest of the world.
They're waiting and seeing what's going to happen. Because it's
going to be challenging for some and not challenging for others.
So let's see how it plays out.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
We've chatted on the show already today to Ray Smith,
director General of MPI, who was recently in China, and
he said he felt the vibe. These are my words,
not as on the ground, regarding a recovery in the economy.
In the economy, why are you such a pessimist?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm actually I actually go talk to people across a
range of industries all the time.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Part of the.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Research I do for the show, Jamie is I actually
get to the pub sometimes and yan away to people
in different industries. It's pretty tough, but you know what
I'm seeing is, you know this time of the year,
it's heading into spring, there's a lot more positivity around
because we're coming out of winter. That's pretty normal. Restaurants
are slowly opening up their balconies and that people are
(01:11):
going out from hibernating from winter. But there isn't a
massive uptick in people going out and spending money and
doing that sort of thing. It's just a normal sort
of seasonal spring thing, you know, and when to put
it into perspective, you know, I was talking to the
company that does my logistics.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Or call store.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
They run a whole weep of call stores around China actually,
and they were saying in Shanghai they're consolidating and reducing
their footprint of call stores here because what's happened is
that this year, from last year to this year, they're
down sixty percent in delivery. You know, they're still servicing
the same amount of locations, it's just that there's not
(01:54):
that much pull through from where they're delivering, you know,
the restaurants and food service that the that they're delivering
the volume is significantly down, you know, And that's what
I'm hearing all the time. You know, it's there's a
lot of wishful thinking about Yep, things are going to
get better, you know, as you said, there might be
a bit of a vibe. Hey, look, China is a
pretty cool place and there's lots of things happening, but
(02:16):
the reality is it's still pretty tough on the ground
for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Talk to me about tom Sweeping Holiday, which is this
Friday in China.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, it's a yearly national holiday, and you know, Toms
Sweeping is pretty self explanatory, you get. You know, Traditionally
people will go back to their family terms and clean
them up for spring and things like that. Also, what
people do is they burn what they call pape. They
could burn paper, money and paper objects and stuff for
their ancestors to have things in the afterlife and things
(02:47):
like that. So what happens you can see it in
the most streets in China. Now, they'll start at night time.
People will be out sort of draw a sort of
a half circle on the on the on the pavement
and burn a few bits and pieces. It's more and
then down south they sort of that they offer food
and things like that. So it's a pretty important time,
(03:08):
you know, just to remember you know, people that have
come before you and they do a bit of a
spring clean and things. So we've got Friday off for me,
I will be probably taking my family to a lovely
restaurant enjoying some good New Zealand food.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
When we chatted to you a couple of weeks ago,
you were looking forward to enjoying some good New Zealand food.
New season Kiwi fruit. Have you tried it yet?
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I got my hands on some red Kiwi fruit. They
were fantastic, really good. Haven't clean cleaned them all goods
A couple more on my fridge at the moment. But
you know, Desprey does very well this time of the year.
You know, all the food, all the fruit shops, all
the supermarkets, their major sort of stand or the major
sort of promotion is zspre product at the moment. It's fantastic.
(03:54):
And I saw I went to pick out one of
my children from from school the other day yesterday last night,
and one of the local fruit shops there their main
stand by the door was Desprey, you know, which is great,
you know. And and the interesting thing is that with
all the marketing stuff that thissbre does is that it's
not New Zealand Esprey, it's just Zesprey. So you know,
(04:15):
the brands that powerful, that strong. You go in any supermarket,
especially in the major city and the major.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Sort of section of the fruit.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
The focal point is Thisspre Kiwi fruit, which is fantastic
and looking forward to getting my hands on.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Some gold and a bit of green ladder you know
when they arrive, so which is good. And then we've
got apples. You did on fresh apples should be arriving
soon as well, which would be great because I enjoy
a good kiwi epple as well as you'd expect.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Hunter, a boy straight out of Roxburgh where they grow
great apples as well.
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