SA ready for more exports

INFORMATION on SA trade and investment opportunities and the state’s increasing competitive advantage and export capability will be outlined at an industry briefing this week.

Wayne Chao, centre, with co-investors Jonathon Jianing Li (L) and Jason Shuang Zhao.

• Harbour Bottling: SA wine export route to China
• Thomas Foods: New Murray Bridge vision takes shape

INFORMATION on SA trade and investment opportunities and the state’s increasing competitive advantage and export capability will be outlined at an industry briefing this week.

An industry briefing event on Thursday, organised by Brand South Australia, will hear from

Harbour Bottling investor Wayne Chao who will provide his insights on developing a comprehensive export service platform overseas at the I Choose SA event series.

Harbour Bottling started shipping to India, UK and Canada last year after focusing solely on exporting SA wine to China since 2016.

Mr Chao is the founder of AWTE Enterprise, which backs Harbour Bottling’s contract wine bottling, packaging, warehousing and exporting services to the wine industry.

Its Osborne bottling plant produces about 4000 bottles an hour, equating to an average of 40,000 bottles a day — and can cater for 600 shipping containers a year.

Last calendar year the plant produced wine enough to fill 400 containers.

SA agri-food exports rose 7.2 per cent to a record $6.2 billion in 2017/18, bolstered by strong growth in sales of wine, barley and wheat.

Rural Bank’s Australian Agriculture Trade report showed the state’s wine exports increased by $378 million to $1.9 billion, or 26 per cent, on the back of demand from China.

Thomas Foods International chief executive Darren Thomas, who heads up Australia’s largest family-owned meat processing business, is also a speaker at the event.

Earlier this month, Mr Thomas revealed the group is working on a detailed feasibility plan on a rebuild at a greenfield site in Murray Bridge, following a devastating fire at the previous family-owned abattoir a year ago.

While international food processing infrastructure experts have been engaged, no further details have been revealed about the vision which involves discussions with key stakeholders including community, state and federal regulatory authorities and agencies.

“With a highly skilled workforce, cutting edge research and development, competitive labour costs, and strong collaboration between government, industry and academia, South Australia offers a highly competitive environment for international companies who are also increasingly seeing the benefit of establishing operations here,” Brand SA said in its event note.

Trade Minister David Ridgway will also outline current and future initiatives and opportunities at the event at the Adelaide Convention Centre.