Food producers with small domestic markets could struggle to make their business viable, unless they can conquer the export market. But in Tasmania, producers are cashing in on demand for gourmet produce from far-flung regions of the world, taking advantage of the island’s disease-free status and clean, green reputation. Matthew Brace looks at Tasmania’s export success.
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Food producers in small domestic markets must rely on exports, and these sales are usually more demanding to achieve than those at home. Fortunately the global boutique food market is expanding and there is also a growing demand for gourmet produce from increasingly far-flung regions of the world. Regions do not come much further flung than Tasmania, Australia, but its regulators and food businesses have shown how a careful exploitation of natural advantages can result in lucrative food exports. Tasmania is one of few territories worldwide that can claim a 100% disease-free status for their food products. There is also an absolute ban on genetically modified (GM) produce and antibiotics in beef production; no growth hormones are used; there is no chemical use in the huge and lucrative salmon production industry; and many products are organic.
Add to this clean image, a temperate climate similar to the south of France (it is on similar latitudes but in the southern hemisphere), rich soils and a small population, and it is not hard to see Tasmania’s potential as a boutique food producer.
The island’s export developers have recognised they can never compete on the world commodity market but have realised that their small size might also be their strength. The Tasmanian Government Department of Economic Development’s general manager for export and market development, Alan Campbell, has seen how successful Tasmania has been internationally as a model for other small regions with similar climates and a healthy, green outlook. “Our strengths lie in producing high quality, safe food products that appeal to niche and premium markets,” he said. “Being a counter-seasonal supplier, the major export destinations are south east and north Asia.
Clean, green reputation
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By GlobalData“Tasmania and its products already enjoy a reputation, both nationally and internationally, as ‘clean, green and safe’. Our passionate food producers have capitalised on our natural advantages and share the values of positioning, sustainability, competitiveness and growth through innovation, to build an internationally competitive quality food industry.”
Exports of food products total about A$420m (US$323m) per year, which is almost 19% of Tasmania’s total exports. Campbell said that the target is to “increase production (at farm-gate or beach) by A$250m by 2008 and increase employment in the production sector by 500-1,000 jobs by 2008”.
So how does this heart-shaped island (about the size of Ireland or West Virginia) at the bottom of the world stay so “clean, green and safe”?
A lot of credit must go to Quarantine Tasmania, which operates some of the world’s strictest quarantine regulations and practices to ensure the island retains its disease-free status, which is proving so crucial to food exports.
Quarantine keeps diseases at bay
No one gets through the island’s air or seaports, even from 30-minute long domestic commuter flights from the mainland, without a thorough sniffing from Quarantine Tasmania’s teams of patrolling beagles.
According to the authority’s state manager, Danny Reardon, it is this tough line of defence that makes Tasmania so attractive to food buyers and consumers.
“Tasmania has been very successful in recent times in gaining market access into a number of overseas countries because of its disease free status, and is now supplying an extensive range of high quality clean fresh food to many parts of the globe,” said Reardon.
“The most recent of these is gaining access of fresh Tasmanian cherries into the Japanese market place.
“Tasmania does have strict non-GM legislation which is enforced vigorously both at the barrier and post-barrier. Tasmania has a quarantine barrier control system that is considered by many governments, both within Australia and overseas, to be very stringent.”
This system is supported by a state-wide pest and disease surveillance system, which provides technical data to support the state’s submissions concerning market access to overseas countries.
International market access
In addition to the surveys, the state also runs an extensive quarantine awareness campaign both within Tasmania and on the Australian mainland.
“It is felt that this general public awareness gives all members of the community an ownership of quarantine thus the programme is considered to be very effective,” said Reardon.
“In recent years the state has had many visits from international quarantine delegations to view the operations in Tasmania, including from Korea, China, Japan and Taiwan. In many instances as a result of these visits, Tasmania has been able to gain international market access for many of its fresh products.”
Of course all this costs, and Tasmania spends A$1m a year just on quarantining its visitors by sea. But the rewards are already being seen as the list of exports is impressive. Tasmania is the world’s largest supplier of wild abalone, producing 25% of the total global catch. The abalone industry is big business, with licences costing more than A$1m, harvesting managed under a strict quota system, and the end product being consumed in Japanese restaurants at premium prices.
The Americans are also warming to the island’s salmon and ocean trout, which is being served in some five-star restaurants in the US and there is an important aquaculture by-product making its mark: with sturgeon fished to near extinction in the northern hemisphere, a temporary world-wide ban on the trade in sturgeon caviar has provided a boost to Tasmania’s salmonid caviar which sells for around A$65 per kilo wholesale.
Selling whisky to Scotland
Furthermore, cheese, gin, honey mead and handmade chocolates and fudge all travel to a number of countries in Asia. Walnuts are in demand from the Germans, while the UK imports significant quantities of Tasmania’s olives and gourmet sauces.
The island’s saffron industry is tiny but highly unusual in the southern hemisphere. A recent crop weighed in at 1.5kg and was worth A$70,000 retail. The opposite seasons in the southern hemisphere means Tasmanian truffles help prop up the supply in restaurants in France and elsewhere in Northern Europe just when their own stores are running out. Also to France goes fennel oil, distilled here in Tasmania and shipped north. Pernod Ricard has been one of the main buyers, using it in the production of its famous Pernod liquor brand.
Perhaps the most surprising exports of all are whisky (from the Lark Distillery) and kelp, which are sent to Scotland. The kelp is used to make alginates (foam stabilisers). Tasmania’s disease-free status is extremely beneficial when it comes to susceptible items such as fruit and vegetables. There is no fruit fly here, nor tobacco blue mould, potato cist nematode, mad cow disease, foot and mouth, or rabies. The fact that one of the most particular markets – Japan – is taking consignments of fresh Tasmanian cherries is proof of the worth of that status.
