Industry welcomes support for diversifying markets

The Australian sugar industry welcomes the decision of the Australian Government to support the first phase of the industry’s Five-year Trade Policy and Market Access (TP&MA) strategy. 

The strategy is the culmination of multiple years’ analysis and discussion across industry stakeholder groups. It has nine action plans and five broad objectives which are: 

> Achieve a fairer global playing field free of export subsidies, and trade distorting domestic price supports;
> Maximise export revenues by focussing on the highest-returning global markets;
> Look ‘over-the horizon’ to identify potential new global growth markets;
> Address a number of technical barriers to trade; and
> Better understand the environmental requirements of global customers.

Given the Australian sugar industry derives most of its revenue from export raw sugar sales, trade policy and market access remains a priority for the industry. Successful implementation of the strategy will lead to a diversification of export markets, with increased industry returns. This will have the flow-on effect of enhancing the economies of Queensland’s sugar communities and help the industry deliver its share of the Australian agricultural sector’s ambition, to become a $100 billion industry by 2030. 

The $592,900 grant, provided under the Agricultural Trade & Market Access Cooperation program, will fund four action plans and the first year of the Strategy’s implementation. The four plans relate to the recent win against India at the World Trade Organisation; meeting environmental requirements for accessing global markets; identifying new markets and improving procedures when exporting to Japan. 

CANEGROWERS Chairman Paul Schembri thanked the Federal Government for its support of the strategy. 

"With 85 per cent of our raw sugar exported, securing access to a wide range of markets is vitally important.  The value of market diversity cannot be understated,” he said. 

David Rynne, Director of Policy, Economics and Trade at the ASMC said the growing and milling sectors looked forward to working with key government agencies to ensure the successful implementation of the strategy.