Export Programs

Mr CREGAN (Kavel) (15:00): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister please update the house on how the Marshall government is enhancing export programs in South Australia?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Minister for Trade and Investment) (15:00): I thank the member for Kavel for his question. He has taken me to many businesses in his Adelaide Hills electorate and, of course, they are very interested in growing their business, and one way they are wanting to do that is through exports.

The member for Kavel has been very interested in what our merchandise export figures have been over recent months. Back in April, we exported $12.5 billion worth of merchandise exports. Then, in May, it increased to $12.6 billion, and for the 12 months to June it increased to $12.8 billion. Just recently, in the 12 months to July a record $13 billion worth of merchandise exports was exported out of South Australia to the world. That is a fantastic result, bringing money into the South Australian economy. In fact, it's 18.6 per cent up compared with the year to July 2020.

It's really good work by our South Australian exporters and a credit to them. They have had to battle some really challenging economic conditions. They can't travel overseas, so they have had to use other means to get access to markets, whether that's through our trade offices or their own logistic methods. Compared with nationally, we are up 19 per cent and nationally the value of overseas exports was up 9.1 per cent, so again South Australian businesses are exporting above the trend.

That export is in various forms. Whether that's tuna into Japan, whether that's copper into China or even vegetables into Vietnam, they are all contributing to the success of South Australia and putting premium South Australian produce onto the plates of people around the world. Of course, this is helping to employ more South Australians than ever before, which is a fantastic result. Our aim is to continue to help South Australian businesses to grow so they can in turn employ more South Australians and grow their businesses.

As I mentioned, there are some real challenges and headwinds exporters have faced in terms of international travel, but no more so than in the member for Kavel's electorate in terms of bushfires and the challenges that has brought as well. Pleasingly, I went to Golding Wines, one of the great wineries in the Adelaide Hills. I was there with Darren Golding and a number of other Hills wineries: Longview wines, Tomich Wines, and the Watkins family wines to congratulate them and 16 South Australian wineries in all on participating in our US Market Entry Program, which we are running in conjunction with Wine Australia. This helps them concentrate and grow their exports into the massive US market.

There are complexities involved in this, and we got to talk through some with those wineries on the day. The US market has the three-tier distribution system, and the 50 states effectively make it 50 different markets. This US Market Entry Program will help them understand what the compliance is, what the regulations are, even the marketing, what the price points are, what PR things they could do and even the logistics to try to get them into this very lucrative US market.

Our trade offices in the US will also assist them, whether that's in Houston or in New York, to get them in front of those importers and distributors, which is key to being able to successfully export wine into the US. This is a fantastic initiative. It's the first initiative in our $5.4 million Wine Export Recovery and Expansion Program announced in this year's budget, helping South Australian wineries to export to the world, which in turn helps grow their business and create jobs here in South Australia.