A trade delegation including the meat exporter Alliance Group is heading to India this week to try to drum up more business, and interest in the 2015 Cricket World Cup that New Zealand is co-hosting.
Alliance's general marketing manager Murray Brown said the delegation, which includes Fonterra, Zespri and Pipfruit New Zealand as well as Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, would visit New Delhi and Mumbai on the three-day tour.
Mr Brown said the visit marked a year since Alliance began exporting high-end lamb in partnership with Quality New Zealand - which is a company stacked with cricketers including Brendan McCullum, Daniel Vettori and Stephen Fleming.
He said while Alliance's lamb trade with India was still in its infancy, the potential was huge.
"It is pretty small volumes and it's like other countries in that region - huge population, middle-class growth is developing, more westernisation, more western chefs in that region that are getting jobs in these hotels that have a range of restaurants."
"So it's going to be progressive and we just need to build the relationships to give them confidence that the quality of New Zealand product and Alliance product going there is of the highest class," he said.
