Mar 28, 2025
Back in November of last year, a delegation from Hanpure, South Korea’s largest importer of New Zealand velvet, visited New Zealand. As part of their visit, which included excursions to AgResearch and Raincliff Station, video footage was shot to be used in promotional material highlighting the farming practices and quality assurance that goes into producing New Zealand velvet.
These videos have now been released on the company’s YouTube channel and feature six 10-minute videos of their visits to key facilities. The focus of the videos was to show traditional Korean medicine practitioners, as well as the South Korean general public, how deer are farmed in New Zealand, how velvet is produced, and how velvet quality is assured.
Highlights from the trip included advanced tracking (VelTrak) and grading technologies, the sustainability of farming practices, and research into velvet’s potential health benefits, as well as subsequent conversations on how traditional medicine and scientific research can be integrated for greater benefit.
In addition to the videos, Hanpure shared the story of their New Zealand trip with AKOM News three times. AKOM News is the traditional medical industry news outlet run by the Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM).
“A picture is worth a thousand words,” says Virginia Connell, DINZ markets specialist. “Having these visual representations of the work – the farming, the quality assurance, the research – that goes into producing New Zealand velvet for the Korean market to see is a big win for the industry.
“It really helps to promote the work that goes on behind the farmgate and right through the velvet supply chain to reassure traditional medicine practitioners in South Korea, as well as the end consumer, that our systems are there to guarantee the quality of the velvet we produce.”
As we are seeing in markets all over the world, verification of quality assurance and other farming practices are becoming more and more part of doing business. This is where VelTrak sets New Zealand apart as a key component of our velvet exports, giving peace of mind to our velvet customers.
