News Archive

Western Australia can do more to feed the Indo-Pacific zone, according to Western Australian Minister for Agriculture and Food, Hon Dean Nalder.

Through an increased WA government presence in Indonesia, encouraging innovation and investment in value-add supply chains, and by leveraging regional trade agreements to remove barriers, Western Australia would continue to play a significant role in ever increasing market opportunities within the zone.

Speaking to more than 1000 government, business and academic delegates at the In the Zone 2016: Feeding the Zone forum in Jakarta today, Mr Nalder said Western Australia was a major regional food producer.

In providing a snapshot of Western Australia’s trade activity with its closest neighbour Indonesia, Mr Nalder said the $7.79 billion trade partnership represented 14 per cent of WA’s total agrifood exports.

Wheat was by far the largest commodity traded with Indonesia, valued at $969 million in 2014/15.  Live cattle, beef and cattle offal were the next largest contributors, valued at $88 million.

Mr Nalder said WA’s long-standing trade partnerships coupled with the demographic changes sweeping the region meant greater opportunities to ‘feed the zone’ and its rising ‘consuming classes’ through more innovative and strategic ways.

He cited Interflour, a partnership between Cooperative Bulk Handling Group (CBH) in Western Australia with Indofoods in Indonesia, as an example of successful leveraging of the regional food supply chain.

Mr Nalder said Interflour now operated nine flour mills across Asia with 70 per cent of the grain used coming from Western Australia. He said this innovative business model put WA wheat growers closer to customers and was a good example of a successful cross border partnership.

The proximity of Western Australia and its ability to ensure quality assured, premium exports was a great advantage to be further expanded, he said.

“WA’s proximity to South East Asia is a key asset. It takes a grain ship from Kwinana just five days to reach Jakarta, but it takes nine from Sydney. The transport of premium food products within quality systems to underpin the integrity will remain critical.

He said the three-year, $6 million Asian Market Success project, funded by the Western Australian Government’s Royalties for Regions program, aimed to open new, high-value Asian export markets and transform WA’s agrifood export models into internationally competitive approaches.

Innovative developments for new supply chains were already being explored through the Northern Beef Futures project.

He said the project “was investigating alternative supply chains using Special Economic Zones to feed and process Western Australian cattle in Thailand, providing the potential for this beef to be re-exported to other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.”

The economics of this proposal were already showing strong results and combined the strengths of WA’s primary producers with international value-add operators in the same time-zone, according to Mr Nalder.

Technology provided another key innovation for connectivity, traceability and verification of food safety. Mr Nalder was optimistic that the digital platforms of the future would promote Western Australia’s well-established reputation for producing high-quality, safe food products.

“As people in the region look to the next wave of hand-held technology, it is likely the digital economy will rapidly expand. Western Australia’s agribusiness sector is expected to benefit from this, as the supply and value chains increasingly work to enhance product quality, provenance and food safety.”

Science and technology would continue to play an important role in the future of Western Australian agribusiness, as would the state’s wealth of expertise in the logistics and maritime sector – experience which could be specifically harnessed for Indonesia’s current plans for significant port expansion.

“Western Australia which comprises over one third of Australia’s vast coastline has considerable expertise in the ports and maritime sector.  We are already seeing some activity between WA companies and Indonesian port operators.  This cooperation and development will increase the connectivity between Western Australia and Indonesia and make it easier to trade and invest.”

Note

Feeding the Zone is being streamed live by webcast.  To follow the discussion: www.zone.uwa.edu.au/webcast2016/

View the Feeding the Zone 2016 Program for full speaker and session details.

In the Zone was founded by The University of Western Australia (UWA) in 2009 and remains Western Australia’s premier forum on questions of regional significance, bringing together governments, businesses and policy makers for important collaborative dialogue and strategic solution building.

The premise of In the Zone is that Western Australia shares a time zone with 60 per cent of the world’s population and the nations that promise the greatest economic growth of the twenty-first century.

Previous conference themes have discussed: Crisis, Opportunity and the New World Order (2009);  The Geography of Global Prosperity (2011 & 2012); A New Narrative of Prosperity and Power (2014);  Capital Ideas for the 21st Century (2015).

In 2015, In the Zone presented a one-day event in Singapore as part of a Venture Asia initiative to bring the regional discussion into Asia.

Feeding the Zone is the theme of the 2016 In the Zone forum and continues positioning this important forum in Asia (Jakarta, Indonesia).

The Perth USAsia Centre, based at the University of Western Australia, is a non-partisan, not-for-profit institution promoting stronger relationships between Australia, the Indo-Pacific and the USA by contributing to strategic thinking, policy development and enhanced networks between government, the private sector and academia.  The Perth USAsia Centre is pleased to present In the Zone 2016 in partnership with the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia.

Media references

Sonia Nolan, Media Manager, In the Zone 2016

M:  +61 (0) 401 034 103  E: [email protected] W: www.zone.uwa.edu.au