Trade deals

While MFAT plays the lead role in these, MPI provides much of the backroom data and technical information which back up such negotiations.

Clearly the spotlight is on India and Smith says MPI has been very active in building up the relationship with that country.

"We have had their National Dairy Development Board over here and that went incredibly well. We have been speaking at dairy related conferences in India. We think of India as a big and potential market where there are challenges and we are looking at what we can offer them in a potential deal," he says.

According to Smith, one option is to build relationships by helping them increase the productivity of their industry. He says NZ has a lot of know-how which could be of benefit to India.

The other reason for the re-organisation of the 'market access and trade areas' of MPI, says Smith, is to put more effort into helping farmers and others in the primary sector to get the maximum benefit out of existing FTAs and other trade agreements. He says such agreements are complex and the goal is to set out in simple terms the potential benefits.