Dairy Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and Wine Australia joined forces to promote Australia’s strengths across food and agriculture as part of Australia Week in China.

The three national agricultural bodies painted a consistent, modern picture of Australian fine food and wine during the Australia Week promotion.

They are keen to work closely together in targeting Australia’s largest market for food and agricultural exports.

The three key groups jointly attended a number of events in major Chinese as part of the promotion, drawing an enthusiastic response from the new wave of cosmopolitan, sophisticated Chinese consumers.

At the Premium Australia Lunch and Showcase in Shanghai they presented a video highlighting Australian landscapes, producers and premium food and wine.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo was a keynote speaker at the presentation.

Dairy Australia, MLA and Wine Australia had a unified presence at the premium product showcase that featured BBQ demonstrations by an onsite chef, cheese tastings and wine tastings.

The event, attended by about 250 Australian delegates and 250 Chinese guests capped off the week’s programs.

Dairy Australia Group Manager Trade & Industry Strategy Charles McElhone said the initiative had already received positive traction from key Chinese customers, importers and distributors who worked with the Australian dairy industry.

“Initial feedback from some of our Chinese customers has indicated they are quite impressed and enthusiastic for this type of collaboration, so it will be exciting to see how far this can go,” Mr McElhone said.

Competitive edge

“We believe this partnership can mark a new chapter for the way in which we drive fine Australian produce into key markets.”

“We each have developed key relationships within China and other regions so to join together and harness these further, only sells a stronger proposition to our customers and gives us a great edge over our competitors.”

MLA General Manager, International Markets Michael Finucan said: “Having a consistently strong and appealing set of messages can help build a platform to allow Australian premium agricultural produce successfully differentiate itself from competitors, grow demand and preference for our produce in China.

“This will ultimately create more value for Australian producers and the whole Australian supply chain.”

Highest quality

Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said: “As the food and wine culture in China continues to evolve, through this collaborative effort we will share the stories of Australia’s pure natural environments, our talented and passionate producers, and share our fine food and wine offering.

“We want China’s sophisticated food and wine consumers to equate products of Australian provenance with the highest quality.”

The launch builds on detailed work, begun in 2015, to develop a coordinated approach to promoting Australian dairy, red meat and wine in China.

It draws on common themes of quality and provenance and emphasises the links to the unique and diverse Australian environment, agricultural systems and people that differentiate the Australian offering from international competitors.

The industry-led project has been facilitated by Austrade, and ASA 100 (the Australia Sino One Hundred Year Agricultural and Food Safety Partnership) has expressed support for the program.

Following Australia Week in China, the group will evaluate the pilot and develop a plan to expand on this collaboration in the Chinese market, with a view to potentially taking the learnings into other key export markets for premium Australian food and wine.