Export Industry

Ms VLAHOS (Taylor) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries. What feedback has the state government received from South Australian businesses about exports following the government-supported trade delegations to South-East Asia?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, Minister for Forests, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport, Minister for Racing) (14:29): I thank the member for Taylor for the question and also acknowledge the great advocacy she does on behalf of primary producers in her electorate. I have had the pleasure of being out in your electorate many times, member for Taylor, going through the glasshouses and other businesses of people who are doing such a terrific job in that horticultural sector.

Last month, the Premier and the Minister for Trade led a delegation of businesspeople from South Australia, including 30 people from the agribusiness sector representing 20 food and wine companies. Already, just a month after that visit, we're starting to see some of the rewards. Of course, one of the government's key economic priorities is premium food and wine from our clean environment exported to the world.

We have been a government that has gone out there seeking new markets and trying to build relationships and build exports in all sorts of markets right around the world. That's the way we're going to improve the economy of South Australia and that's the way we're going to create more jobs in South Australia—by bringing money from outside our state into South Australia and getting that money flowing right through the South Australian economy.

A member of AUSVEG SA has struck a $500,000 deal to export vegetables to Malaysia, and a McLaren Vale family-owned wine producer, Nardone Baker Wines, secured export deals in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. These deals are brilliant for South Australia, not only for individual premium food and wine companies but for the economy overall.

AUSVEG SA State Manager, Jordan Brooke-Barnett, has said the trip provided a unique opportunity to build relationships and was an excellent chance to look at Thailand as a potential export market for South Australia's vegetable industry, a market they hadn't thought was feasible. He said, 'Thailand really has the potential to be a lucrative market and we're going to start the process of sending trial shipments of South Australian vegetables over there.'

Nardone Baker Wines' Managing Director, Frank Nardone, has said that this mission provided an opportunity never experienced before. Mr Nardone was able to meet with potential buyers in all three markets, and I understand he signed export contracts in Singapore, with some of his wine that is normally exported to Europe now being sold there. I'm also told that an order for Nardone Baker wines has been placed in Kuala Lumpur and they are in the process of finalising a deal in Thailand.

It's all terrific news and, of course, it comes in the same week that we have had the most powerful man in Shandong, the Party Secretary, Mr Jiang, here in South Australia. He led a delegation of 150 people from Shandong Province. Of course, 100 million people live in Shandong Province. It has an economy worth $1 trillion—the same size as the Indonesian economy.

The Premier hosted a wonderful state dinner on Tuesday night, and then last night I had all the procurement people, about 80 of them, who had come over from Shandong looking to buy South Australian produce. We started the day in the National Wine Centre where we had Laucke Flour, Golden North and many other great South Australian producers showing their wares. Then the Party Secretary and I went up to the Waite campus. He was blown away by the high level of research that is done there in a place that is renowned throughout the world as being one of the leading agricultural science facilities.

In the afternoon, Darren Thomas hosted us at his home set-up at Nairne, where we looked at the great work that Thomas Foods International has done—a company with a turnover of $1.8 billion a year, which is pretty good going for a South Australian company. They see that figure likely to grow and grow. It is beholden on all of us here to go out and build new markets, build relationships and make sure we can sell as much of our premium produce as possible to those in other parts of the world.