Milk New Zealand exhibitor chuffed with quarantine and room with a view
Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Milk New Zealand, at his Shanghai hotel during the quarantine.
Roy van den Hurk, general manager of Milk New Zealand left managed isolation in Shanghai right in time to participate in the third Chinese International Import Expo yesterday. I had a chat with him right near the end of his two-week stint in a quarantine hotel with a view of the Huangpu River.
Were you at all hesitant to leave New Zealand and travel under the current global situation?
From a health point of view, I wasn’t hesitant. Both China and New Zealand have COVID-19 under control, so I considered the flight from Auckland to Shanghai as probably being the safest in the world. There is still some risk, but relatively minor compared with elsewhere, and I think you would need to be a little unlucky with all the precautions being taken.
Needing to be in quarantine twice for 14 days each time definitely made me consider whether it was worthwhile. I must go into quarantine again when I return to New Zealand. However, we discussed it and obviously considered the effort to be worthwhile, or I wouldn’t be here.
Views from quarantine of Huangpu River from Hurk’s hotel-room office.
Is this your first time doing a quarantine?
Yes. The second time will be when I return home in a couple of weeks.
How is your hotel room? What have you been doing for the last two weeks?
My hotel room is great, and the view of the Huangpu River makes it even better. I am lucky to have such a wonderful view.
During the past two weeks, I have made myself a routine, which fits around food delivery, and temperature and health checks. This includes some simple stretches and exercise, mainly in the morning when I wake up. Most of my time has been spent working from my computer or phone. When I have had some free time, I have been reading books or practicing on my guitar.
Nice. What are you looking forward to most about getting out?
Going outside for a long walk in the fresh air and sunshine. In New Zealand, I spend a lot of time outside. I also cycle 25 kilometers at least four days per week and go for a 3-4km walk each day.
I’m also looking forward to trying out some more of the interesting cuisines around Shanghai.
How confident are you about China’s handling of safety in general as well as for the expo?
I am extremely confident. Everything I have seen indicates that every detail of risk has been considered, and practices have been put in place to minimize or eliminate the risk.
The hotel-room office where van der Hurk worked for the past 12 days.
What do you and Milk New Zealand hope to achieve at this year’s CIIE?
We aim to promote our THELAND brand of dairy products and the new “3F” quality standard we are using, and show customers and consumers why they are getting such good value for this product.
In the second CIIE, we did as much business in two days as we did in the whole week for the first CIIE. I would hope to achieve the same improvement again this year.
I have always believed that the most important thing in business is the customer. Our main market is China and that is where our customers are.
Therefore, it is very important that we come here, meet them, and listen to them. As the saying goes, “if you don’t look after your customer, they won’t look after you.”
