Australia's relationship with Asia is strong

The participants of the recent CBH Growers Study Tour were welcomed by government officials in both countries, including a visit to the Indonesian ambassador for Australia Penny Williams' residence.

Both countries are crucial for Australia's agricultural economic development.

In 2020, Vietnam was the second biggest market in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for Australia's rural exports, valued at A$1.81 billion.

In 2021-22, Australia exported an estimated $4.3b of agricultural goods to Indonesia.

Ms Williams said the Australia-Indonesia relationship was in a "really good" place at the moment, thanks to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's commitment to the region.

Since he was sworn into office 15 months ago, Mr Albanese has visited the country three times.

"There's a lot of commitment to the relationship from the government," Ms Williams said.

"There's also a lot of commitment to strategic economic engagement -- there's a real opportunity to lift that."

Fifteen days after Mr Albanese's appointment to government, he flew to Indonesia and visited the Eastern Pearl Flour Mills in Makassar.

Ms Williams said this was notable because it was far from the main hub of Jakarta and not many politicians go to the effort to visit parts of a country outside the main cities.

She seemed extremely positive that this was a good indication of the future of the relationship between the two countries.

"The Indonesian President and Australian Prime Minister are both really committed to growing that relationship - it's not just about selling stuff to each other, but also creating supply chains into other markets and investing," she said.

Consul-General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sarah Hooper said having a delegation of WA graingrowers visiting key South East Asian customers would help make Australian trade discussions easier.

"It's a really special time in our relationship, so it's wonderful we can say we have 39 growers here finding out about the country, being engaged, trying out the food and helping us to grow our partnership with Vietnam," Ms Hooper said.

This was echoed by CBH head of accumulations Trevor Lucas and exclusive agent for Vietnam market Thanh Tran who said customers were more excited to engage with Australians after meeting the farmers who grow their grain.

"CBH's relationship with Indonesia and Vietnam is super strong, we are geographically close so it's the shortest freight from anywhere else in the world," Mr Lucas said.

"They need us and we need them, so it works well."

While the relationships are positive, there is still a lot of room for the relationships to grow, according to Western Australian Government trade and investment director Duc Tran.

He said he was currently in discussions with big agricultural factories in Vietnam to begin investment in Western Australian agriculture.

"The potential for collaboration between the two countries is still a lot - Vietnam is already in the top 10 of trading partners with Australia, and vice versa," Mr Tran said.

"That is very good, but the potential for further trade is really high."

While Australia may be gifted with natural resources and land, Vietnam has a surplus of labour, so the two countries can support each other.

Mr Tran said Vietnam's large population of almost 100 hundred million people, meant the demand for wheat was high, as was the potential for further trade.

"Vietnam very much relies on wheat and barley from Australia," he said.

"There's a lot of factories and they are still looking for grains and the demand in the market is very high."

Intermalt commercial manager Sophie Dang said this was a critical time for Vietnam-Australian relations as the country was experiencing rapid growth.

"This is a critical point of time to cooperate together to grow and develop," Ms Dang said.

"If we can promote more grain into Vietnam, this will result in a development of the relationship that both sides can benefit from.

"We can prepare for expansion in the future because the industry and Vietnam is growing, so we will follow that trend."