Taiwanese opportunities for food producers

Australian exporters have felt the effects of current health situation, from the downturn but also the opportunities flowing from a new normal.

The SQ Export Hub, delivered by TSBE, recently hosted a webinar with industry experts aimed at providing information for food and agricultural exporters interested in entering the Taiwanese market.

TSBE Export Manager for Food and Agribusiness, Justin Heaven said, “our region and our exporters are well-placed to take advantage of any opportunities.”

“There are now three flights per week leaving the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, two flights to Hong Kong and one flight to Singapore,” said Mr Heaven.

“These are recognised as international distribution hubs which provide access to many international markets.

There is certainly interest from overseas, with Taiwan being Queensland’s fifth largest merchandise export destination.

Queensland Trade and Investment Commissioner – Taiwan, Patrick Hafenstein was one of the speakers during the webinar.

“Queensland currently exports over $235 million of processed food to Taiwan,” said Mr Hafenstein.

“Australia has a clean, green and healthy image which can be leveraged to assist Taiwan, who value food quality and high nutrtion.”

With the growing adoption of E-commerce platforms and AgTech, there are even more opportunities for Australian businesses.

One of the real opportunities is in exporting beef to Taiwan, with their younger generation attaining a taste for beef that was previously avoided by locals.

Meat & Livestock Australia’s Business Development Manager – Taiwan, Erica Chiu shared some insights to assist protein producers.

“Barbeque meat cuts are in high demand in Taiwan, but it is quite a competitive market,” said Ms Chiu.

“Taiwan is a diverse culture influenced from both Asian and European countries, and their demand for Australian products is high.”

SQ Export Hub growth centre partner, Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL), also participated in the discussion.

Growing the share of Australian Food in the marketplace is FIAL’s mission in the food sector, supporting collaboration in industry by sharing knowledge, building capability and creating connections. FIAL is a not-for-profit organisation supported by the Federal Government.

FIAL General Manager Commercial, Rod Arenas, said that we need to accelerate commercially driven collaboration to increase our success.

“We are very lucky in Australia as we have a great reputation for quality produce and people are generally willing to pay a little extra for this,” said Mr Arenas.

“We can utilise innovation to grow and develop something new and unique to both domestic and overseas markets.”

Due to this exceptional reputation for food and agricultural products, and Australian exporters can maximise on available opportunities.

TSBE will be running a series of export events in the coming months.

Visit www.tsbe.com.au to keep up to date.