Australian food exports expect growth to Asia

According to Dynamic Export, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Trade, Anthony Byrne, highlighted the growth in opportunities to export food products to the Asian region in his address to the Australian Food and Grocery Council Industry Leaders Conference recently. Byrne said the size of the food, beverage and grocery industry was comparable to mining, contributing 2.5 percent to Australia’s gross domestic product. Figures show that Japan was Australia’s largest food export market for this past year, with six Asia-Pacific countries in the top ten export destinations for food. The ASEAN free trade agreement (AANZFTA) with the ten nations of the Association of South East Asian Nations and New Zealand will further enhance opportunities in the region through the reduction of tariffs and improvement of market access.