AUSTRALIA Post chief Ahmed Fahour says his 206-year-old institution can build itself into a pan-Asian logistics player despite the fierce headwinds buffeting the group.

Revealing yesterday that the postal service had fallen into the red for the first time in more than 30 years, Mr ­Fahour said there were significant opportunities offshore.

He flagged a foray into the backyard of rivals such as Japan Post — which this year bought Australian logistics group Toll — and Singapore Post as they eye the lucrative parcel market here.

“We are focused on growing our e-commerce business to everyone ... we will not just focus on the domestic market but also particularly the Asian opportunities in front of us,” Mr Fahour said.

Australia Post announced its ailing letters division lost $381 million in the year to June, dragging the wider postal service to a $222 million loss.

A year earlier, the authority had chalked up a $116.2 million profit.

Mr Fahour said the parcel delivery business continued to grow, but the extra revenue failed to offset losses in the haemorrhaging letters division, where volumes were down 7.3 per cent.

Parcel revenue rose 3.6 per cent to $3.21 billion. For the first time, it made up more than half of group revenue, which was stable at $6.37 billion. This meant Australia Post was now “a parcel company more than we are a letter company”, Mr Fahour said.

He said more than 30 companies had signed up to use Australia Post’s joint venture with Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, launched last year. Under the venture, Australia Post provides translation, payment and logistics services for companies who sell products to Chinese consumers using Alibaba’s Tmall shopping platform.

Mr Fahour pointed to the expansion of vitamin maker Swisse into China — using Australia Post — as a good example of the growth potential.

The agreement with Alibaba had opened the door for small and medium Australian businesses to export to China without a Chinese business ­licence, he said.

The Australian dollar, which was fading against the greenback, was also giving a leg up to those businesses, Mr Fahour said.

“In many ways, Australian goods for global consumers are 40 per cent cheaper today than only a couple of years ago. The last time this happened, we saw our export volume double.

“Interestingly, in the last 12 months, parcels, specifically into Asia, have doubled.”

Last week the Senate gave the go-ahead for Australia Post to offer a “two-speed” mail service.

It is now awaiting approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to hike the price of stamps from 70c to $1.

Pensioners are protected from the price hike and ­Christmas stamps will be cheaper, at 65c.