SPEAKERS at the Australian Grains Industry Conference have highlighted market opportunities in China, India and Southeast Asia.
Daily Cargo News recently reported about a “significant trend” at the Port of Melbourne during the past five years with Southeast Asia’s emergence as a key importer of Australian grain and pulses.
Speaking to the conference in Melbourne this week, Grain Trade Australia chair Andrew Goyder said Australia was keen to “shape the conversation” on food and nutritional security, trade policy and non-tariff barriers as part of its role as chair of the International Grain Council Group.
Mr Goyder said education was a crucial aspect of promoting Australian grain in emerging markets.
“We have now been going to Southeast Asia and China for over 10 years, promoting Australian grain and bringing together customers and exporters on a face-to-face basis,” he said.
He noted AGIC events in Thailand, China and India.
“For the first time we had AGIC India and I am sure there will be more to come,” he said.
“We are engaging directly on such issues as canola access and regulatory settings and addressing non-tariff measures.”
Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Adam Fennessy, said they were continuing to promote Australian grain even as global conflicts created “significant challenges” for agricultural exports.
Mr Fennessy spoke of not only China and Southeast Asia but also Latin America and India.
“Southeast Asia does remain a heightened focus for this [Australian] government under its Southeast Asian Economic Strategy to 2040 that was released following the Nicholas Moore Report in 2023,” he said.
“That region continues to be a critical market for the grains industry reflecting those long-standing and trusted relationships.”
The AGIC also included a panel session on demographic drivers of trade with China and India, with Argus Media analyst Julia Zhang observing how the China market had changed during the past five years, influenced by factors including an outbreak of African swine fever, tariffs on US sorghum and an aging population.
Ms Zhang noted tariffs imposed on US sorghum was already working in Australia’s favour as China sourced alternative grain feed from other sources.