CHINESE consumers might love Australia's clean, green image, but work is underway to look at what else they might want when it comes to choosing what they buy.
The Australia China Business Council (ACBC) last week launched a series of events on diversifying Chinese investment, the first of which considered what Chinese women, who largely hold the family purse strings, were looking for.
Chinese Chamber of Commerce (CCCA) Perth branch president David Sun said the average families shopping was controlled by women.
"If you want to do agribusiness with the Chinese, you have to pay attention to researching what the females want," Mr Sun said.
"In China, a lot of the time, the wife controls the money of the family... a lot of the dinners are cooked by the wife and they also do the shopping for the food - so we have to pay attention to them."
Department of State Development special advisor Rob Delane said "young mothers or would-be mothers, daughters of parents and people who were shopping online had to be top of mind".
"They ought to be in the minds of every Australian food company exporting to China," Mr Delane said.
The discussion was part of the launch of an ACBC's event series looking at Chinese investment in Australia, focusing on agriculture, aquaculture, property, tourism, education, health and e-commerce.
The series will showcase various WA investment opportunities and discuss what WA could do to improve and diversify future opportunities to attract more Chinese investors to the State.
Speakers at the first event discussed why branding of Australian produce was important, making the most of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA), the importance of relationships, a showcase of two Australian companies's successes and challenges Australian agribusiness still faces.
"The Chinese think of Australia as being high quality, in terms of clean and green, safe and reliable," said ACBC president John Brumby.
"The challenge for Australia, whether it's in agriculture, pharmaceuticals or tourism, is that we need to make sure we stick to those values - because they are the things that sustain our advantage."
Mr Brumby warned Australia won't always have a ChAFTA advantage and had to work to build relationships to capture the benefit of tariff reductions.
"China will be reducing all the tariffs with all the nations with whom we compete,'' Mr Brumby said.
"There is still lots of people that misunderstand the Chinese market, it is a different retail market than we are used to here in Australia.
"It is a business-to-consumer market."
Minderoo head of investments John Hartman said Australian investors faced challenges setting up in the Chinese market.
"We are fortunate to have a West Australian working for us over there, who has lived there for 20 years and is fluent in a few languages," Mr Hartman said.
"Finding the right people and advisors on the ground is a good starting point, which is a challenge the Chinese face as well.
"Beef or any food product is an extremely controlled business, so the challenge for us was getting the licences and making sure we were set up in the right area.
"It is important to set up business in the right area to be serious in China.
"And you need patience."
Mr Sun agreed with Mr Hartman and said having local partners was the key to investing.
"I have seen a lot of ups and downs and some good projects," he said.
"Lots of deals were done over the dinner table in China, but here you have to get information about the project, you have to go to the field and get your shoes dirty.
"In Australia you can get a lot of information from government.
"Australia is different to the Chinese market, if you have a local partner, it can save a lot of time and money and help you follow all the Australian practices."
To combat the challenges Friday's discussion panel - comprising Mr Hartman, Geraldton Fishermen's co-operative chief executive officer Wayne Hosking, King and Wood Mallesons partner Nigel Hunt, Mr Delane, Mr Brumby and Mr Sun - agreed branding and sharing the story of Australia to the consumer was important.
Mr Delane said it wasn't a matter of "slapping logos" on retail products, but it was important to protect and reinforce Australian products by telling the stories behind them and the companies which produced them.
He said there was a difference between branding and a brand.
Minderoo group supports an national umbrella branding approach for Australian produce.
Minderoo Group managing director and ASA 100 co-chair Andrew Forrest believes in selling Australia on a united front.
The leaders of some of China's largest and most prestigious food and agriculture businesses and Australian agribusiness and government leaders also support the approach.
Mr Hartman said national branding was strongly supported and could provide a huge competitive advantage in China.
"An image itself can't be put on goods," he said.
"You need to have something that is easily recognisable on the retail shelf - we think is important.
"We don't think all products become 'Australian beef', each company needs their own brand and their own story.
"But we are trying to pull industry together... to use a national brand, which we think could provide a huge competitive advantage."
