New Caledonia is fast becoming a hot destination for travellers over 60 to put onto their bucket lists.

Not only because the series of islands is full of relaxing beaches with white sands and enough
swaying coconut trees to make you feel like you’re on the set of Gilligan’s Island, but also because of
its rich cultural history.

When you get tired of the island life, you can visit museums, and when the sun has become too
much, simply step into one of the renowned art galleries to escape the heat. There is so much to see
and do on this island, and the stories and tales of this former penal colony are sure to surprise.

1. New Caledonia is a French archipelago located in the South Pacific

2. The official language is French

3. There are also more than 30 other dialects and languages spoken including Vietnamese and
Polynesian languages

4. The series of islands are located around 1,200km off the east coast of Australia

5. Most people are Roman Catholic or Protestant

6. The total land area is around 18,000 square kilometres, about the size of Wales

7. 22 species of bird are endemic to New Caledonia

8. The most famous is the New Caledonian Crow which is known for making and using tools

9. The official currency is CFP Francs

10. The highest peak on the mainland is Mont Panie, which stands around 5,344ft

11. New Caledonia’s primary export is Nickel and they have more than 25 per cent of the world’s
Nickel reserves
12. The Kanak people are the indigenous inhabitants of New Caledonia

13. They make up 40 per cent of the New Caledonian population

14. They’re known for producing exquisite wooden carvings

15. “Kanak” means “Human being” in Hawaiian

16. New Caledonia fought for independence from France during the 80s and 90s and a referendum
will be held before 2018 to decide

17. Population of about 280k with 43% of the population between the age of 25 to 54

71.3 % of the population is urban (201,492 people in 2019)

The median age in New Caledonia is 32.3 years.
Overview

Destination and airline partnered up to increase passengers to New Caledonia resulting in 290% lift
in airline sales.

The Opportunity

Competition among the many and varied destinations in the South Pacific is steep. The territory of
New Caledonia wanted to gain brand recognition and increase market share against other nearby
tourism destinations like Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Cook Islands.

The Solution

New Caledonia Tourism turned to Expedia Media Solutions to develop a custom campaign targeted
to the Australia market on Expedia.au. They worked in partnership with Aircalin airlines to provide a
package offer of discounted airfares from Australia to New Caledonia. In addition, Aircalin airlines
used a radio spot to promote the offer, referring listeners back to Expedia.au to book the air and
hotel discounted package.

The 3-week campaign on Expedia.au consisted of home page core offers, wallpaper ads, and display
ads on Search pages targeting for similar destinations in the South Pacific. The campaign also
included a post on the Expedia.au Facebook page and included a dedicated email sent to targeted
Expedia customers.

The Results

The campaign proved to be a smashing success, generating triple-digit Year-Over-Year results for
both New Caledonia Tourism and Aircalin.

Heads-in-Beds.png

123%

Room Nights

money-icon.png

151%

YOY Gross Bookings

plane-icon.png
290%

YOY Airline Tickets Sales

Friends.png

154%

YOY Passengers

Royal Pacifique

In May of this year I had the pleasure of supplying and installing a 60kg Coffee Roasting line in New
Caledonia for local company Royal Pacifique S.A. This being my first visit to the island, it was
surprisingly only a one and a half hour flight from Brisbane. The Café Culture team on hearing of my
visit, asked if I could share my experience.

I have to admit I was a bit surprised when I was contacted by co-owner and Managing Director,
Nicolas Fouligny, after initially providing quotes back in July of 2011. This strengthened my belief
that you never know where your next sale is going to come from and how important it is to make
every effort to respond to enquiries, no matter where they come from. From my initial conversations
with Nicolas, I immediately knew this would be a fun and exciting project to work on. It is great to be
able to experience other coffee markets and learn from their culture and history. Nicolas was more
than happy to educate me on the history of his company, which is an amazing story of growth and
success.

The French took formal possession of New Caledonia in 1853 under orders from Napoleon III. The
island, with a population of 256,000, contains an eclectic cultural mix of Kanak people (the original
inhabitants), white Europeans, Polynesian people and South East-Asian people. French is the main
language spoken on the island, and there are quite a number of indigenous languages spoken as
well. New Caledonia contains approximately 25% of the world’s nickel resources, and the island’s
economy is heavily reliant on the mining industry. The island is truly a paradise just off our shores
and one that every Australian should enjoy at some point in their lives.

Royal Pacifique was founded in 1921 to take advantage of the quality coffee grown in New
Caledonia’s sub-tropical climate with rich fertile soil, and it has only had two owners since then. The
country was well known for its Leroy Coffee (also known as Pointed Bourbon) once enjoyed by
Winston Churchill. Over 90% of the coffee grown on the island is of a Robusta variety; however,
efforts are being put into growing the specialty coffee segment, mainly of the Red Bourbon Arabica
variety. Whilst in the past the company had focused on locally grown coffee, these days Nicolas
informed me that the majority of coffee they roast in Royale Pacifique is imported from Australian
broker Cofi Com. The main origins used in their blends are from Papua New Guinea, Central/South
America, Hawaii and Brazil. The bulk of their sales is in their traditional line of Royale Pacifique
ground and whole beans, which have been in the market since the company was founded in 1921.
Royale Pacifique have in total around 60 various products, including the many house brands they
produce for mainly local French chains. They also roast and pack for coffee pods, which they have
been doing since 2006. Their third area of coffee supply comes from instant soluble coffee, which
Nicolas says unfortunately represents the biggest consumption locally.

It was great to see the busy operation in action. The company also handles all their own distribution,
with four small trucks that take on average two full days to cover the whole island and also the
smaller ones. The Royal Pacifique brand is everywhere, and Nicolas proudly tells me that they are
sold in all stores on the island. Recently they have been developing their distribution to the catering
sector, as well as mining camps.

Through ongoing quality of their products and dedicated customer service, Royale Pacifique have
grown to now occupy two thirds market share of the local whole and ground coffee market. The
rapid growth over the previous decade was the catalyst for Royale Pacifique to upgrade their
roasting facility. When I arrived, it was hard to believe that they had been doing over 5 tonnes a
week on a 1960s Probat diesel roaster and a recently decommissioned 20 kg French diesel roaster,
after 45 years of service that was originally wood fired. They had been working these machines to
the bone and after the order was placed for the new equipment, the sense of urgency became
apparent after the French roaster had broken down and was unrepairable. Prior to the installation
there was a period of 2 to 3 months where they were trying to manage this volume with the one
roaster. The sense of relief expressed from Nicolas once the new roaster was delivered was clearly
evident.

Coffee Roasters Australia supplied a 60 kg Has Garanti diesel coffee roaster with PLC control, 120 kg
stainless steel destoner and all the ductwork. The equipment arrived safely and was unpacked when
I arrived for the installation. The first job was to position the equipment and connect it together. We
managed to get this part done in a relatively short time on the Sunday that I arrived. On the Monday
I met with local electrician Patrick who, along with his team, commenced the installation of the 3
phase electrical circuit. I got to know Patrick quite well while there and really enjoyed hearing his life
story. I was very impressed with his professionalism and being based on a relatively small island, he
had extensive experience as an industrial electrician, covering most industries on the island. Patrick
was also kind enough to introduce me to the local delicacy of escargot one night. I was relieved
when it came out smothered with enough garlic and butter to provide a familiar taste. Whilst
Patrick’s team were working on the electrical connection, work was also done on the diesel tank
connection.

There were some scary times trying to get a forklift into the facility via a crane “island style”. How
someone didn’t end up hospitalised from that operation was a miracle. For the local contractors it
just seemed like another day on the job, which in many ways reminded of the construction worked I
witnessed in Shanghai working off bamboo scaffolding. The rest of the installation went through
pretty smoothly. We had some issues with the voltage fluctuations on the 3 phase circuit that
required some adjusting to the variable speed drives. Being in an industrial area, the fluctuations
were quite high at certain periods of the day. Once the installation was complete, that left us with a
couple of days for training with the head roaster and his young apprentice.

One of the highlights of the trip was witnessing head roaster Edouard’s look of utter fear and
bewilderment at the sight of the PLC touchscreen panel. He had never seen such technology and
when Nicolas informed me of his story, it all made sense. Edouard is a second generation roaster at
Royale Pacifique, having following in his father’s footsteps. Edouard used to come home from school
and chop wood for his father to use as fuel for the company’s wood roaster (the same one only
recently decommissioned). Edouard, in his late 50s, has been with the company a very long time,
roasting on the same roasters, so the sight of the new technology was understandably a scary
prospect for him. Nicolas advised me that Edouard was hesitant and wanted to keep roasting on the
Probat he was used to and have the apprentice, named Dominique, learn on the new one.

After a few demonstrations and some calming reassurance, Edouard was on his way roasting on the
new roaster with ease. The first day he roasted approximately 20 batches back to back and there
was no longer any interest from Edouard in the old roaster, which was formally handed over to
young apprentice Dominique to continue his initiation. Production was again working like clockwork,
with the ladies in the packing room struggling to keep up with the roasted coffee now piling up. It
had been the other way around for quite some time, so the jokes between the staff, albeit difficult
to understand in French, were amusingly translated by Nicolas.

Nicolas has recently advised me that the future looks very promising. Since the installation they have
been proudly displaying their new roasting line to customers and have picked up new contracts,
both local and international. In 2014 Royale Pacifique will be moving into a newly purpose built
facility. We have started work with them on a new roasted coffee silo and grinding system in order
to improve production efficiencies. Hopefully if I get to go over again, I will have time to enjoy more
of the majestic wonders the island has to offer.

Foreign relations

New Caledonia has close ties with its neighbours, particularly Vanuatu where it has had a
cooperation agreement since 2002. The Government of New Caledonia also has a representative to
New Zealand based out of the French Embassy in Wellington.

Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Vanuatu each have a diplomatic presence in New Caledonia
through their respective Consulates-General.

New Caledonia is a member of the Pacific Community (SPC), the South Pacific Regional Environment
Program (SPREP) and the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO). New Caledonia is also an
associate member of the International Organisation of La Francophonie and has a non-voting seat on
the World Health Organization Western Pacific Regional Committee.

The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) is a member of the Melanesian Spearhead
Group (MSG).

In 2016, leaders decided to admit New Caledonia as a full member of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF).

Bilateral relations

Australia is represented in New Caledonia by a Consul-General based in Noumea.

Relations between Australia and New Caledonia are broad and historic, extending across a range of
domains. In 2015, Australia celebrated its 75th anniversary of Australian diplomatic representation
in New Caledonia.

Australian and New Caledonia share much in common, foremost our interest in stability in the Pacific
region.

Australia has interests in working with the New Caledonian and French authorities in New Caledonia
in a range of areas including promoting greater trade and investment; cooperating on regional and
natural disaster relief; defence cooperation including visits and joint exercises; combating security
threats and transnational crime.

Australia supports the Noumea Accord process to determine New Caledonia's future governance
including for increasing autonomy and integration in the Pacific region.

People-to-people links

Australians and New Caledonians have forged longstanding and enduring people-to-people links
across business, education, defence, police cooperation and healthcare.

Tourism links are growing with more than 400,000 Australians visiting New Caledonia each year on
cruise boats. Australia remains the primary destination for New Caledonians, particularly the Gold
Coast.

Australians and New Caledonians have longstanding and enduring links in the education sector.
Australia awarded more than 100 Australia Awards Scholarships to New Caledonian students over
two decades as part of a broader program supporting tertiary study in Australia. Although New
Caledonian students are no longer eligible for Australia Award scholarships given New Caledonia’s
non-eligibility as an aid recipient, they can participate in the Australia Awards- Endeavour Awards
scholarships program.

In September 2015, a trilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between France,
New Caledonia and Australia to support the introduction of an Australian studies section in the
French Baccalaureate International Option (OIB). A pilot Australian studies course for the OIB
commenced in 2017 and is being trialled at two greater Noumea schools.

Trade and investment

Australia is New Caledonia's 11th most important export destination and 4th most important source
of imports. There are an estimated 1,700 Australian companies doing business with New Caledonia.
In 2017, Australian merchandise exports to New Caledonia totaled $394 million (mostly coal and civil
engineering equipment and parts). New Caledonia's exports to Australia were valued at $30 million
with trailers, semi-trailers and containers passing nickel ores and concentrates as the largest
components. Total Australian services trade (tourism and education) with New Caledonia was valued
at $230 million in 2017.

The Australia Pacific Islands Business Council organises an annual Australia New Caledonia Business
Forum to explore and promote business opportunities. The most recent forum was held on 22
November 2017 in Noumea. The 14th Forum will take place in Brisbane on 14 September 2018.

New Caledonia: a unique economy in the Pacific

3 Sep 2014 by Andrew Wilkins Leave a Comment

New Caledonia is a unique territory in the Pacific region. With the second highest per capita GDP in
the region, it is a prosperous first-world economy that possesses a level of development and
infrastructure that would be the envy of most Pacific island nations, as Andrew Wilkins reports.

The port at the Koniambo nickel project. Credit: Glencore

The port at the Koniambo nickel project. Credit: Glencore

The keys to the territory’s prosperity are twofold. Firstly, it continues to have political and economic
attachment to France, which comes with a sizeable contribution from the French taxpayer, equal to
around 18% of GDP (2011). Secondly, the main island of Grand Terre possesses about 25% of the
world’s nickel resources—estimated as amounting to some 300 years’ worth of metal ore.

‘New Caledonia is a small economy, very dependent on nickel and public money,’ observes Éric
Wiard, Director General of Banque Caledonienne Investissement (BCI), part of the French BRED
banking group that also has presences in Vanuatu and Fiji.

New Caledonia has other advantages, too. As a French territory, it offers other countries in the
region a route into the European Union, one of the world’s largest trading zones. New Caledonia also
has a well-educated workforce.

‘New Caledonia has good fundamentals. It just needs its political institutions to introduce
confidence, hope and optimism.’

Recent downturn

Noumea. Credit Carnival Cruises

Noumea. Credit Carnival Cruises

When world nickel prices are high and French government contributions adequate, such
dependence is not a problem. However, when Business Advantage visited the French-speaking
territory in the first half of 2014, New Caledonia—following a strong growth period—was going
through a temporary slump. This was causing both businesses and government to address
efficiencies and productivity.

In recent times, world nickel prices have been relatively low (albeit rallying in the first half of 2014),
affecting the profitability of New Caledonia’s nickel sector. At the same time, France’s economic
support has been limited.
‘Apart from nickel, which is a non-renewable source of revenue, New Caledonia is going to be
confronted by a tough budget situation. French subsidies are frozen, while our needs—an ageing
population, the cost of social security—are growing exponentially,‘ explains Laurent Chatenay of
Groupe Sofinor, the investment company of the territory’s Northern Province.

Infrastructure spending

Faced with an economic downturn that has returned trade volumes back to 2010–11 levels, and
slowed construction activity, expectations are high that the territory’s new government, elected in
May 2014, will ‘green light’ major social infrastructure spending.

‘New Caledonia has good fundamentals. It just needs its political institutions to introduce
confidence, hope and optimism,’ suggests the outgoing President of the New Caledonia Chamber of
Commerce (CCI), André Desplat.

‘This is a territory for pioneers and entrepreneurs. Startups appear here wherever there is a gap in
the market.’

With construction for the 2011 Pacific Games in Nouméa and the Koniambo nickel mine and refinery
construction now completed, social housing has been identified as a priority area. The Dumbéa sur
Mer suburban development on the outskirts of Nouméa—the largest suburban development in the
Pacific—continues apace, with a major new hospital under construction, and further development to
the north of Nouméa planned.

Also notable has been the growth in the territory’s remote north, thanks to the new Koniambo
nickel mine and refinery—one of the goals of an active policy of economic rebalancing between
north (with its large indigenous Kanak population) and south.

‘The Northern Province is starting to become a significant centre for economic activity,’ observes
Cyrille Berhault of human resources company Ellipse Consulting.

Encouraging the private sector

With a population of just over a quarter of a million people, New Caledonia is still a small market,
and much of the effort to build its economy revolve around overcoming an inherent lack of scale and
reducing reliance on costly imported services and products.

‘This is a territory for pioneers and entrepreneurs,’ observes businesswoman Barbara Vlaeminck of
steel fabrication business Socometal.nc. ‘Startups appear here wherever there is a gap in the
market.’
With 93% of businesses belonging to the New Caledonia Chamber of Commerce (CCI) having less
than 10 employees, however, the challenge for New Caledonia is nurturing its small business and
providing sufficient capital for growth and development of the private sector.

Key role of investment companies

Thus, the role of the territory’s provincial investment companies, Groupe Sofinor (Northern
Province), PromoSud (Southern Province) and SODIL (Loyalty Islands) is critical. Funded by their
shareholdings in the territory’s nickel mining projects, these funds act both as holding companies for
local businesses that would otherwise struggle to attract investment and as potential venture
partners for those seeking to establish businesses in New Caledonia.

The funds play a particularly important role in housing, agriculture, aquaculture, tourism and
hospitality—all areas that are essential if New Caledonia is to continue to genuinely diversify its
economy.

Andrew Wilkins is Publishing Director of Business Advantage International. This article was first
published in Business Advantage Guide to New Caledonia 2014/15, published this month by Business
Advantage International.

New Caledonia: towards Independence?

While it has gained increased autonomy from France in recent years, New Caledonia remains part of
the European nation.

However, under the Nouméa Accord that followed civil unrest during the 1980s, the territory is
committed to at least one referendum on independence from France between 2014 and 2018.

Heidi Bootle

Heidi Bootle

The Congress (local parliament) voted into power in New Caledonia’s May 2014 provincial elections
will be responsible for determining the precise time and nature of the referendum. The elections
resulted in the Congress holding a majority in favour of remaining part of France.

The general consensus among business people Business Advantage talked to for this publication was
that, whatever the eventual outcome of the referendum, any changes to current constitutional
arrangements would most likely be slow in coming and formed by consensus.
‘My sense is that all efforts are being made to ensure that the country continues to enjoy its current
stability,’ assesses Heidi Bootle, Australia’s Consul-General to New Caledonia.