AUSTRALIA'S agricultural sector feeds more than 60 million people around the world and is one of the country's leading areas for growth.
That is according to AsiaLink Business when it launched its Business and Investment Guide, Australia in Sydney this month.
Supported and funded by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA, the guide would help attract investors and build relationships with export partners in Asia, said AsiaLink Business research and information director Megan Mulia.
Ms Mulia said AsiaLink Business was asked to help inbound market investment to build exports for Australia.
"Particularly from an agriculture point of view, there are large inflows of attracting investors, such as China," Ms Mulia said.
"We needed to create a guide to help these businesses navigate how to do business in Australia.
"It looks at various aspects to support the inbound investment; from the profile of Australia, the stability, growth, demographics and how to set up a business, find a partner and how to market a product and looking at the State-by-State profiles."
Ms Mulia said the document looked at investment opportunities for each State as investors didn't see Australia as States, but as one country.
"The aim of the guides is to attract investment," she said.
"That's not just for WA, it's for all investments into Australia.
"If a Chinese company is looking to invest in dairy, are we really worried that the company they are looking to acquire is in WA or in Queensland, when they are looking for a sound investment with a significant return?
"The guides give a good look at each State as we need a better understanding and a way to help structure how the State profiles work.
"So we have provided a lot of information around the States."
The 150 page guide recognised WA as "Australia's largest State, equivalent in size to half of Europe - yet has a population of only 2.6m, that is best known for its mining and resources industry, but increasingly opportunities are being created in other fields", including agriculture.
"Many companies take advantage of Perth's geographical position, which places it in the same time zone as 60 per cent of the world's population," the guide said.
"The agricultural sector, historically a key part of Australia's economy and way of life, is also predicted to grow in the coming decade.
"Today, two-thirds of Australia's land is used for farm production, with 90pc of this allocated to animal grazing on native pastures.
"It is estimated that the highest value of production for the use of grazing is cattle, wheat, dairy, vegetables, fruit and nuts, and then lamb meat and wool.
"Often referred to as the agribusiness and food sector in Australia, turnover was worth $173.4 billion in 2014, registering a 6.1pc annual growth rate and employing over 512,000 Australians.
"This is with an 8pc growth rate in exports, valued at $41.7b."
Ms Mulia said AsiaLink had a variety of programs for more than 25 years, and under the Gillard government, a taskforce was formed designed to improve Asia capabilities in the Australian workforce, which was the creation of AsiaLink Business.
"We are looking at outbound, but also inbound opportunities into Australia for investment," Ms Mulia said.
"It is a thorough guide and gives those businesses looking at Australia a place to start and understand the market."
The company held a soft launch of the guide at the 2016 AsiaLink chairman's dinner in Sydney earlier this month and plans to have a full scale launch following the Chinese New Year.
"We will be having a small road show until the early months of the new year," she said.
"Our aim now is to get it out there and get people familiar with it and help those investors understand Australia."
Ms Mulia said she expected many Asian investors to use the guide before deciding to come to Australia.
"It is early days now," she said.
"But it will be interesting to see how it is received in the next few months."
Ms Mulia said the guide discussed the opportunities in all markets and had a strong agriculture element, simply because it was funded by DAFWA.
"But we have considered all industries, including the resources sector.
"Agriculture is a key component of the changing nature of investment in Australia and that's why it has a strong agriculture focus."
The guide said Australia's beef industry exports alone was worth more than $9.3b in 2015, an increase of just under 20pc when compared to 2014.
"As a result of this increase, beef industry exports are now the Australian economy's seventh-biggest export," it said.
"It should be noted that, beef industry exports have a five yearly average growth rate of 16.9pc.
"Wheat exports were worth more than $5.8b in 2015 and other meat exports, such as lamb and pork, more than $3.7b."
The guide said the rising demand for high-quality food from Asia's growing middle-class means more than 60pc of Australia's agricultural exports go to Asia.
"Australia's largest single market is China with 2pc, followed by Japan with 9.4pc, Indonesia with 7.3pc, Korea with 5.8pc, Malaysia with 3pc and Singapore with 2.8pc," it said,
"All continue to grow annually and offer opportunities with strong potential for investors."
In the guide AsiaLink Business said there were many advantages to investing in Australian agriculture.
"The ability to make a counter-seasonal offering to the northern hemisphere from reliable, long-term suppliers is just one," it said.
"The industry welcomes overseas investment by means of international partnerships and transfer of technological knowledge.
"The nation has around 135,000 farm businesses, 99pc are family owned.
"Every Australian farmer produces enough food to feed 600 people - 150 Australians and enough food exported to feed 450 foreigners.
"The nation is well known for high-quality seafood, with an annual production value of around $2.4b.
"On average Australia exports $1.2b worth of seafood products annually and in 2015, exported $309m worth of fish into international markets.
"Ninety three per cent of Australia's domestic food supply is produced by Australian farmers and Australia produces 9.5b litres of milk annually and has 6700 dairy farmers."
