Wine and seafood sectors also to benefit from China trade deal

Dairy farmers are among the exporters who will reap the rewards of the free trade deal with China and other sectors like wine and seafood will also benefit.

However, exporters are being warned the deal will not mean instant riches for them.

Eight years ago, Villa Maria became the first New Zealand vineyard to start selling wine in China, however only after years of hard work.

"Before we sent our first wines up there it was eight years," Ian Clark from Villa Maria Estate told 3 News. "So it just doesn't happen overnight."

New Zealand's wine exports to china are still relatively small - around $4 million each year.

The wines are mainly drunk by tourists and business people staying in the big hotels, but it is hoped wine exports will be boosted by the phasing out of the 14 percent tariff and by the growth of China's middle class.

"That growing middle class is then eating and consuming more western style foods," Wine Institute's Philip Gregan said. "So you put those two things together and you have a big opportunity."

Another to benefit is the seafood industry. At the moment, around $100 million worth of rock lobsters are exported to china, but it has to go through Hong Kong or else face a hefty tariff.

"This is a product that when it gets on a restaurant table, Chinese people are willing to pay over $100, us dollars, to eat rock lobster from New Zealand," Alastair MacFarland from the Seafood Industry Council said. "So it's a very lucrative business."

But ending the tariffs is only part of the story. Exporters who have been there already say building good relationships is also vital.

"We had lots of Chinese companies who wanted to take our wines," Ian Clark said. "But when you researched them through they weren't going to our target market."

Even with a free trade agreement, exporters say that breaking in to the Chinese market is still going to be a lot of hard work - requiring a lot of time and patience to make the right contacts.