The Cook Islands hopes to bring its niche products to the Chinese market through the China International Import Expo (CIIE), the world's first import-themed national-level exhibition, according to the country's head of government.
In an interview with China Media Group (CMG) during his state visit to China, Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said that although the delegation representing the South Pacific country at the expo last year was small, they came seeking big value.
"As a small country, we are not, I guess, big producers or big developers of large volumes of product. So our products that we would produce would be targeted towards niche markets, very small buyers of discerning products. There may be things like vanilla products, which are low volume but high value for producers. Of course, our black pearl products are, again, very low volumes but for the very discerning buyer, and other such products," said Brown.
"So these are the opportunities, I guess, that we would look at for our people, our young entrepreneurs to be able to be part of this Chinese market," he continued.
Brown paid an official visit to China from Feb. 10 to 16, during which he attended the closing ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games and met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang in the game's host city of Harbin in northeast China.
Cook Islands look to grow exports of niche products to Chinese market through CIIE
