THE Taste WA trade mission kicked off on Monday with a speed dating event where 46 of the State's premium food and beverage companies were given three minutes to pitch their product to international food buyers.
Held at the Duxton Hotel, in Perth, it was the first of 18 events scheduled over a week-long program to connect international buyers with local food and beverage producers.
Twenty-five food buyers from markets including China, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Taiwan are visiting WA to tour the metropolitan, South West and Great Southern regions and source WA products.
The delegates will cover 1000 kilometres as they visit farms, production facilities, WA retail outlets and enjoy tourism, food and beverage experiences in Perth, Bunbury, Margaret River, Manjimup, Albany and Denmark.
Hosted by the State government, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA (CCIWA) and Austrade, more than 80 local premium food and beverage producers are involved in the program to grow export markets for WA's agri-food and beverage sector.
In the same time zone as countries including Beijing, Denmark, Tokyo, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, in terms of the supply chain, WA is well-placed to trade with a range of major export markets and punches well above its weight in terms of the national GDP.
CCIWA TradeStart export adviser Darren Levy said while WA accounted for 10 per cent of Australia's population, WA's gross State product covered 17.5pc of the national GDP.
"We have 49 per cent of Australian exports that come out of WA," Mr Levy said.
"We had $44 billion worth of investment last year into the State, which is enormous considering COVID pushed things down quite considerably across the world.
"In terms of the gross value of what we produce in WA - it's roughly $9.6b worth of production.
"In the food and agri sector our exports increased from $8.2b in 2020-21 to $12.2b in the last financial year."
One international delegate was Little Farms, a gourmet grocer and restaurant chain based in Singapore which imports its products from around the world.
With about 60pc of Little Farms' product range already coming from WA, the company's commercial director, Tom Gray, said it was an attractive sourcing ground for products for Singaporean businesses.
"We know we are going to get very high quality fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood from Australia and obviously WA has the advantage of being that little bit closer to Singapore than most other places, so from a supply chain perspective it's very appealing," Mr Gray said.
"I'm hoping to meet some new suppliers, both in the dry grocery space but also meat and seafood suppliers.
"All of our wine we are sea freighting out of WA, even if it's from other parts of Australia and we have some direct relationships with Margaret River wineries too, so while we already do quite a bit with WA producers we are looking to grow that."
Mr Gray said he was looking for organic, healthy products that had good provenance stories, as Little Farm's customers were generally prepared to pay a premium for those products.
Monica Chetty, the strategic partnerships director of Pardoo Waygu (another exhibitor at the Taste WA event) said two years ago the business began diversifying its markets so the company now exports its product to 12 international markets.
With a major percentage of the business coming from their boxed beef exports, Ms Chetty said Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines were some of their newer, "growth" markets, while Singapore and Hong Kong were more established markets.
"Like everyone else, our exports were very much affected by COVID but we were able to utilise the freight assistance mechanism, which helped us," Ms Chetty said.
"I wouldn't say we are back to normal, but we are growing back to a level that we would like to see as normalcy."
Ms Chetty said the Taste WA events were useful in giving WA producers access to a broad spectrum of international buyers without them having to leave the State.
"Often you don't have the bandwidth to go to all of these countries in a short space of time," Ms Chetty said.
The opening event coincided with the inaugural flight from Manila, the Philippines, direct to Perth on Monday.
With every direct flight out of Perth translating to a longer shelf life for fresh produce exports, WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis said they would give WA a further competitive advantage in terms of its agri-food export markets.
"Linley Valley Pork can get fresh pork into Singapore the same day it's produced, so our direct flights from Perth into countries with the same time zone present huge opportunities," Ms Jarvis said.
One of the bigger export trade events for the State since the pandemic sent shockwaves around the world, Ms Jarvis said it provided an opportunity for regional WA businesses to value-add to WA's big export commodities, such as grain.
"To have these value-add opportunities for exporters is amazing - it creates regional jobs and jobs in Perth," she said.
"We also have fresh produce that is free of a lot of the pests and diseases around the world, so that also gives us a competitive advantage because of our strong biosecurity."
