THREE international trade delegates met with the region’s exporters and producers today to share insights into East Asian markets.
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Attendees at the Namoi Unlimited event heard from NSW Trade and Investment representatives from China, Japan and Korea.
Namoi Unlimited chairman Jamie Chaffey said it was “a real coup” to host all three and talk about opportunities in these key Asian markets.
“In 2015, Namoi Unlimited undertook some work with the Regional Australia Institute to identify levers to grow the region’s economy,” he said.
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“That work told us that we need to understand the opportunity and engage in international markets to enable agricultural innovators.
“These levers could potentially grow the economy by $900 million by 2030.”
NSW Trade and Investment reps are based in many locations across the world.
“These are important resources for our region’s producers and exporters to connect with,” Cr Chaffey said.
Persistence
One attendee, Lively Linseed’s Jacqui Donoghue, told the Leader her Mullaley-based business already exported to Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore, was very close to cracking the United Arab Emirates and “could always do with new business in China”.
She said only 7 per cent of Australian small to medium enterprises exported and, although her advice was “just do it”, people also needed “persistence and patience”.
“It has taken me up to 18 months to get a contract.”
Mrs Donoghue admitted her approach of dealing direct with retailers was “unconventional”.
“We just cold-call who we wish to deal with, rather than go through an importer who has a whole portfolio of products and companies they’re looking after, and lose contact with the end user,” she said.
She said this allowed her to gain feedback on the product, “which is really valuable when you’re first starting out”.
One example has been downsizing the product pack size, to better suit the daily shopping habits and small retailing and living spaces of urban Chinese.
Councillor Chaffey said Namoi Unlimited “see our role as a group of councils is to facilitate opportunities for the region’s producers to do what they do best – business and commerce”.
“On the back of establishing a key relationship with the Agricultural Bureau of Ningbo in China, member councils of Namoi Unlimited are seeking to engage with producers who are interested in these types of collaborations.
“Namoi Unlimited wants to facilitate businesses to grow and create jobs for our communities.”
