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Country Calendar in China - Source: ONE Sport -
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On the scale of surprises in China, this had to be right up there.
In a relatively small Chinese city over 800km from Shanghai and 3.5 hours flight from Beijing it is unusual to run into foreigners, let alone fellow Kiwis.
Here we were in Guillin (population 400,000) along with the good folks from iconic TV ONE programme Country Calendar.
Julian O'Brien and his crew had come to the heart of Guangxi province to profile an innovative New Zealand company doing amazing things in rural China.
The film crew managed to create quite a stir whenever they went in Guillin, a city that has limited foreign tourism and just a handful of non-Chinese residents.
As an outside observer, it was interesting to see the amount of work and time that goes into getting just the right shot and capturing the perfect moment
There was obviously plenty of planning but alongside a constant emphasis on spontaneity and a lot of laughs along the way.
A unique fruit
The story centres around a unique fruit that grows on vines all throughout this area.
About the size of a large passionfruit, Luo Han is protected as a national treasure and cannot be farmed outside China.
After years of painstaking research and trial, Waikato-based company Bio Vittoria has perfected the processes which allow them to produce an end product from the fruit.
This white powdery substance, to be marketed as Pure Lo, is up to 400 times sweeter than sugar and because of the way it is absorbed in the body, has no calories.
Not surprisingly, some of the giant food companies in the USA and Europe are very, very interested especially with the current global problems with obesity and diabetes.
Country Calendar came to China to discover more about this potential Kiwi success story - albeit in their own unique way.
Director O'Brien and his crew spent more than a week with New Zealander Garth Smith, a managing director of Bio Vittoria who has been based on the ground in China for more than five years.
The charismatic Smith is especially proud of the profound impact that company has had on the local communities.
Bio Vittoria engages the services of over 6000 landholders as farmers and has also created employment for drivers, sorters, pickers as well as engineers and lab technicians in the recently completed factory.
The company has ambitious expansion plans but these all hinge upon perfecting a couple of crucial processes over the next 18 months.
The Country Calendar episode is set to screen in Feburary 2010
on TV ONE.
tvnz.co.nz's Michael Burgess is in China courtesy of the
Asia New Zealand foundation and travelled there with Air New
Zealand. He is aiming to investigate the impact and legacy of the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games and will be writing about the sights and
sounds of China along the way.
