Business SA Export Awards

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister share with the council news from the South Australian Export Awards?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:42): I thank the honourable member for his important question about exports, which are crucial for the South Australian economy. In the 2017-18 financial year, goods and service exports were estimated to have supported some 79,200 jobs in South Australia, or 11 per cent of the state's workforce. In the 12 months to August this year, South Australia exported $11.5 billion in goods to overseas markets. While that is slightly down on our exports from the previous 12 months, if we take into consideration the drought (wheat exports down $807 million) and the effects, I suspect, of the fire that unfortunately befell Thomas Foods (meat exports down some $131 million), apart from those two examples our state is in very good shape.

Deloitte Access Economics reported in September the strong performance in the state's export industries. Service exports and international education and tourism are extremely healthy. I am a strong believer that we should celebrate export success, and on Friday 18 October I attended the Adelaide Convention Centre for the annual Export Awards. It was a fantastic event, ably hosted by Business SA, and it was great to see so many local businesses rewarded for their excellence, innovation and success.

There were about 450 representatives from business there—they were particularly good. There were a number of award winners on the night, including Wines by Geoff Hardy, winning the Regional Exporter Award, sponsored by the Department for Trade, Tourism and Investment. I have been a huge supporter of our number one export industry in wine and beverages, both here in South Australia and in market, and I often see Wines by Geoff Hardy active in this space.

I caught up with numerous trade shows, such as the CIIE last year and last year's Hong Kong spirit and wines fair, with their managing director, Mr Richard Dolan, and export manager, Ms Yuan Yuan, who I might add is a former international student.

This year, Clean Seas Seafood took out the major prize for 2019 as South Australia's Exporter of the Year. I would like to go on the record to acknowledge their fantastic company's innovation and determination to achieve their success today. Clean Seas was founded in 2000 and was able to successfully breed and farm the whole life cycle of the yellowtail kingfish to export them into the premium seafood markets in Japan.

At the awards, I listened to their CEO, David Head, share how, after the promising start to the business, all their fishing stock and capital stock was brought back to virtually nothing for what was later discovered to be a problem with the fish feed. However, the founders, workers and investors of Clean Seas stuck to their guns and fixed the problem to turn the business around and they now export to 150 distributors and wholesalers around the world. This is a fantastic South Australian success story.

I also congratulate other winners, including Accolade Wines, Rising Sun Pictures, Redarc Electronics, the University of Adelaide, Avance Clinical, Supashock, Zonge, Monkeystack, Haselgrove Wines, Mollydooker Wines, Sentek, Prophecy International, Humanihut—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: And what's the last one?

The Hon. K.J. Maher: LBT Innovations.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: This state government is proud to support these awards. I would like to commend again the winners, finalists and award sponsors from this year's export awards. I thank Martin Haese, Nikki Govan and Business SA for hosting such a successful awards night again.