Chinese Brand Goes Overseas: Ice cream company sets up factory in small New Zealand town

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Baxi is a popular ice cream brand in China. It belongs to the Beijing Capital Agricultural Group's Faxi food company. Baxi has chosen to go overseas by setting up a factory in a small town in New Zealand. CGTN'S Owen Poland reports from Auckland.

There's an old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction" which is why the story about a Chinese company making American-style ice-cream in small town New Zealand is so interesting.

ARTHUR YAN ALLIED FAXI NZ MANAGER "We had a dream to build an ice cream factory in New Zealand. In 2014 the dream came true."

The ice-cream dream depended on high quality New Zealand milk, and Allied Faxi sprang another surprise when it built a thirty million dollar factory in Kerepehi - a rural community so small it has only one store that sells everything from groceries to fast food. But the location is critical for exports.

JOHN TREGIDGA HAURAKI PLAINS MAYOR "Why have they gone to Kerepehi, because we're in the triangle, we're in the great triangle between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga – the two main ports of Tauranga and Auckland for New Zealand are in those two ports, we're bang right in the middle of it."

Ironically, the NEW Chinese factory sits in the shadow of an OLD industrial giant.

OWEN POLAND KEREPEHI, NEW ZEALAND "When the Kerepehi dairy factory was first built in the 1950s, it became one of the largest milk processing facilities in the southern hemisphere. But when it closed in 1991, no one wanted to take over such a huge industrial site and the local population fell to just 400 people before the ice cream factory opened and gave new hope to the community."

The new factory has created 55 jobs for local residents like Gaylene Watene who worked in the old plant before it closed and was forced to drive long distances to get work.

GAYLENE WATENE QUALITY CONTROL MANAGER "I'm in my home town, I'm working regular hours, I'm not getting up at three a.m. in the morning to go to my previous job and doing a twelve hour day."

Derelict buildings are a reminder of Kerepehi's economic decline, but once the ice cream factory opened, more businesses moved in. Residents who left the town are also coming back, which has pushed the population above 500 people.

LORRAYNE NEIL FACTORY WORKER "It's really good just to be back in the community because I've been away for so long and just to come back in and reconnect."

The success story highlights the value of China's Belt and Road initiative and local cultural exchanges that go back almost twenty years.

JOHN TREGIDGA HAURAKI PLAINS MAYOR "We've had nearly three hundred students from our colleges going up and home hosted in Jiading which is part of Shanghai and have been home-hosted there – and they're coming back into our families and that's been huge."

As exports increase, there's also going to be more investment.

ARTHUR YAN ALLIED FAXI NZ MANAGER "We are planning to build a new production line to increase new productions. We create more jobs to benefit more local families."

Which means that the future of this community looks even brighter.

Owen Poland, CGTN, Kerepehi.