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>>Michael Clifton: China is Australia’s number one trading partner, our number one
export destination, our single most important source of international students, and our
highest valued tourism market. It is a high growth, high potential market which Australian
business can ill afford to ignore.
The most important trend in the China market for Australian business is to be aware of
the rapid growth of China’s middle class and the fact that that middle class has high
levels of disposable income. The Chinese middle class is no different to the middle class
here in Australia; they aspire to a better standard of living, a better quality of life
in almost every way you can imagine. They want the best possible education for their
children, they want better houses to live in, they want better communities to live in,
they want a cleaner environment, they want access to international travel and they want
access to a broader range of more sophisticated financial service products. These are all
areas of current and prospective opportunity for Australian companies.
Australian companies in the China market by and large are not there to compete on price.
We need to compete on branding and on innovation. So for example, our food and beverage producers
are doing very well in the China market, primarily because of our clean and green image and we
need to focus on the positives of that image and the commercial benefits it delivers to
Australian companies.
What we’re seeing in the China market today is incredible growth in demand for Australian
food and beverage products in particular. Our sales of wine, both in terms of volume
and in terms of value are increasing at a tremendous rate. We’re seeing rapid increase
in the quantity of Australian beef going into the China market and there are a range of
Australian grocery and other food and beverage items that are doing well in the China market,
reflecting the fact that China’s middle class is now better able to afford the products
in which we specialise.
The China market is not for the faint-hearted. It is complex, it is challenging and the role
that Austrade plays is to help Australian companies navigate a course through that challenging
and complex market.