WA to be a prime player for long-term

Mr Kuestenmacher is director and co-founder of The Demographics Group, based in Melbourne, he is a media commentator on demographic and data matters, and he presents on demographic and global trends that are shaping Australia today and into the future.

At last week's annual Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Grains Research Update, Perth, at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Mr Kuestenmacher presented on what changing demographics means for the demand for grains.

His message was clear - there will always be demand for grains - the world's population, especially South East Asia, need what we have here in WA and talk of overpopulation is erroneous.

"People talk about overpopulation of this planet," Mr Kuestenmacher said.

"I say those issues are overblown, we are pretty close to peak humanity."

Mr Kuestenmacher said forecasting populations wasn't all that difficult even, with so many countries and so many trends.

"There are plenty of institutions who forecast, but the gold standard, the go-to narrative is the UN (United Nations) population division," he said.

"Their latest forecast sees the world slow down, actually start shrinking before the end of the century, so we have about 80 years or so of population growth left.

"What does that mean though, there are more people who need to be fed, grain exports will be going up, we will not have a shortage of demand here."

Mr Kuestenmacher said the data demonstrated the largest emergence of middle-class populations in human history, which he said was massive.

"And it just happens to be that our super simplistic Australian business model is really well-suited to succeed in this type of environment," he said.

"Remember as a nation we do four things and four things alone to make money on the global stage - we sell stuff to the world that we dig out of the ground, mining - that we grow on top of the ground, that's you guys - we entertain a couple of people, tourism - and we educate a couple of folks, international students.

"That's about it, that's the vast majority of our exports, and all those four sectors will be doing just fine, structurally speaking, prices for nickel, for grain, for anything that we export of course, they fluctuate, they go up and down - but structurally speaking we are not at risk."

Mr Kuestenmacher said he was very optimistic about Australia as a double net exporter, putting it in what he described as a "very very" exclusive club.

"Only 13 nations are double net exporters," he said.

"A double net exporter produces enough energy and enough food to look after themselves and to export the leftovers."

He said Australia was a massive exporter of cereal and one of the very few absolutely food-secure global food powers.

"You are vulnerable if you have to import food and energy," Mr Kuestenmacher said.

"In Australia, we do operate from a position of strength, but we are of course overall globally a small player.

"That means with our relationship with China, we are the junior partner very much and yes China will always trade with us.

"We should be reasonably safe, even under extreme scenarios, so I would give us a big fat tick for trade security in the long run, especially compared to other countries."