December 8, 2014
Member for Maranoa Bruce Scott visited Kingaroy on Monday with an optimistic message … there are exciting opportunities ahead for Australian food exporters.
Mr Scott, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Joint Standing Committee and is the Trade Sub-Committee chairman, said all the talk was about trade with China, but he said there were “exciting opportunities” opening up in the Middle East.
“We are entering a new era (of exports). It’s not going to change overnight but there are opportunities, especially for high-value horticulture crops,” he said.
He also saw great potential in the new Wellcamp Airport.
Mr Scott said exports to the Middle East already out-ranked exports to China, and had the potential to grow exponentially.
He said criticism of Halal-certification was “ill-informed”.
“Australia has always been a tolerant country,” he said.
Mr Scott said our trading partners in the Middle East understood this.
“It was the Australian Light Horse that helped to get the Ottoman Empire out of their countries,” he said.
He said Afghans had always been a part of the history of outback Australia, helping to build the Overland Telegraph Line and building the first mosque in Australia at Marree (in 1861).
Mr Scott said Halal critics were simply reacting to news reports about the war in Iraq.
“(Islamic State) are criminals. They are not Islamic,” he said.
He said Australian exporters had to be aware of cultural expectations when exporting to countries such as Malaysia, the same as they had to meet cultural expectations when selling into China or Israel.
“(Halal certification) is just a cultural request,” he said.
Mr Scott said Free Trade Agreements with China, Korea and Japan would open opportunities, but there were more opportunities ahead.
Discussions were now beginning on an FTA with India and the Gulf Co-operation Council, the trading bloc which consists of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr Scott was speaking in Kingaroy during a visit to inspect Proteco Gold’s oil processing plant.
He discussed trade opportunities with Proteco owner Josh Gadischke and Kumbia stonefruit grower Graham Francis.
Josh said Proteco, which exports cold-pressed oils, had been represented at a trade show in Dubai and would be present again in 2015.
He said he had found the markets in the Middle East a bit more difficult than Asia but had detected some interest and would continue to work with Austrade.
Graham said he had exported fruit to Saudi Arabia but it was “miniscule” so far.
Mr Scott said he believed the future of farming in Australia would still be based on the family farm, and that domestic markets would still be the most important.
“The great strength in the long run will be the family farm,” he said.
However, international markets were very interested in Australia’s clean, green image; free of disease and “almost organic” approach to farming.
“There is a big swell coming,” he said.
