Port Adelaide Football Club facilitates China business delegation CCOIC’s first visit to SA
SOUTH Australian honey, wine and olive oil producers will have commercial connections to Asia’s largest consumer market knocking on their doors in a few weeks when a key business delegation from China visits the state for the first time.
SOUTH Australian honey, wine and olive oil producers will have commercial connections to Asia’s largest consumer market knocking on their doors in a few weeks when a key business delegation from China visits the state for the first time.
Around 20 representatives of 14 businesses — part of the 81,000-strong Chinese Chamber Of International Commerce (CCOIC) — will arrive in Adelaide on October 24 for a two-day visit.
The Port Adelaide Football Club teamed up with the CCOIC for the first time in Shanghai this year to boost its China Engagement Strategy, which involves facilitating trade, sporting and cultural ties with the country.
The strategy has helped the club win over more businesses as sponsors in Australia and China.
The club will host a business forum at its Alberton headquarters while also getting the delegates to visit local businesses at Hahndorf and McLaren Vale.
Port Adelaide Football Club’s strategic projects general manager Tara MacLeod said the maiden visit representing one of China’s largest trade organisations demonstrated “the power of sport” and was an exciting opportunity to showcase the state’s wares.
“We’re a proudly South Australian club and we want to bring more commercial attention and
economic activity to South Australia,” she said.
“CCOIC have never been to SA before, they’ve had delegations to NSW and Victoria but because of what Port Adelaide is doing and the profile of the game, we are very pleased to be able to bring CCOIC as an organisation and its delegates to SA to create more business pathways,” she said.
Oleapak, Australia’s largest family-owned olive oil producer based in McLaren Vale, started exports to China in 2014, but said it was “meeting new people and opening new doors” as a result of its involvement as a footy club sponsor.
Oleapak signed a new major export contract with a CCOIC business this year - and is weeks away from shipping, the company told The Advertiser.
“It’s a significant contract, equal to another large contract in China, and we’ll also be working with the CCOIC business for a trade show in Shanghai later this year,” said Ed Verco, director of Oleapak.
“It is never wise in business to rest on your laurels and if you’re not always striving for more markets and something better then there will always be someone behind you that will step over you and take those opportunities.”
Oleapak, which was established in 2004, is one of the oldest contract packaging businesses in the olive oil industry, processing at least 25,000 bottles a day at its Willunga warehouse.
“Having new emerging markets like China and people who are willing to invest or partner in the business is amazing and this visit will help not just us but other local businesses in that space,” Mr Vercoe said.
Trade Minister David Ridgway said sport diplomacy was a new way of engaging in an international market with Port Adelaide leading the way in doing it.
“This state is open for investment, we want to grow our exports and grow our local jobs so any inbound investment in South Australia, whether it’s investing here or markets for our products back in China is always good news for South Australia,” he said.