The Federal Government will provide support for six agricultural delegations to visit China to explore market opportunities for products including timber, wild and farmed eels, mangoes, livestock, grapes and Chinese red dates or jujube.
Under the latest round of Australia’s agribusiness program with China, the Australia-China Agricultural Cooperation Agreement (ACACA) program, six industry delegations will each visit China for up to two weeks over the next 18 months to make new contacts and to develop export opportunities.
“China is a major trading partner of Australia and in 2008-09 we exported around $3.4 billion in agricultural goods with strong growth in canola, live animals, fish, edible products, wine and meat,” said Tony Burke, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.
“This year’s agricultural delegations will explore export opportunities for Australian livestock, eels, Chinese red dates, mangoes and grapes.
“This kind of on-the-ground collaboration gives the project teams invaluable insights that can really make the difference to how they approach the Chinese market.”
The ACACA program is jointly managed and funded by Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and China’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Since the ACACA program was established in 1984, more than 200 delegations have been funded in sectors including beef, wool, dairy, horticulture, fisheries, forestry and food safety.
The next funding round in 2011-12 will be advertised in late 2010.
