Kiwis Urged To Shop Local This Christmas

Kiwi shoppers are urged to share the love this New Zealand Made Day, after one of the most testing periods ever for Kiwi retailers and manufacturers.

New Zealand Made Day, on November 21, is the day Kiwis are encouraged to buy at least one locally made item from participating retailers to give businesses a boost in the lead up to Christmas.

Faced with growing economic uncertainty, supporting New Zealand brands is more crucial than ever, Buy NZ Made Executive Director Dane Ambler says.

"Although businesses have come out of Level 4 lockdown, many Kiwi retailers are still unable to operate and are nervous about what lies ahead."

Ambler says small businesses of less than 20 employees make up 97% of all businesses and employ 29% of workers in New Zealand. For them, the Christmas period could mean life or death for their business.

"Once again, we are calling on shoppers to step in and support a local business at this crucial time."

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Kirk Hope says Kiwi businesses have sacrificed much while protecting their customers, visitors and staff during the Delta outbreak.

"BusinessNZ recognises the hard time businesses continue to face and supports this great initiative from Buy NZ Made.

"Let’s try and create some certainty for our New Zealand business owners who could really use our support and shop local this Christmas."

ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard says exporters continue to face significant disruption and need local support for their domestic sales.

"Many exporters sell domestically and internationally, so any local support exporting businesses can receive is a real bonus. Exporters from New Zealand have struggled to secure space on disrupted container shipping schedules since the start of the pandemic.

"Until things get back to pre-Covid levels, local support will be very important to Kiwi exporters."

Online retailers are encouraged to tag social media posts with #nzmadeday and #shopkiwi.

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