Coronavirus: Chinese still keen on Aussie products

Australia poised to emerge from the virus crisis with an enhanced image, says Keong Chan, chief executive of ­AuMake.

Keong Chan, chief executive of AuMake. Picture: Hollie Adams

The Chinese are buying local products at pre-crisis levels, with Australia poised to emerge from the crisis with an enhanced image, AuMake chief executive Keong Chan says­.

Despite fears of an economic backlash intensifying overnight, as China threatened to slap heavy tariffs on Australian barley exports, Mr Chan said he believed those fears were overblown.

Mr Chan — whose company sells Australian and New ­Zealand products to Chinese consumers — said he believed that the antagonism between governments was unlikely to negatively affect Australian products.

Indeed, spending by his traditional clientele — generally more affluent Chinese — was already back around pre-crisis ­levels.

“We’ve been around for a while, and seen quite a few ups and downs in the political arena, but we’ve never seen any influence of that from a political point of view to the consumer. That’s something we think will continue,” Mr Chan said.

“For the Chinese consumer, all the anecdotal evidence we’ve collected, and all the conversations we have daily, is the perception that Australia and New Zealand have dealt with this virus in a world-leading way.

“Australia and NZ are positioned to benefit so greatly from this, because they’re perceived as being relatively free from the virus, and having a really clean environment.”

Mr Chan remained optimistic about his company’s longer term business plan, despite international tourism being unlikely to resume before the end of the year, and roughly half of AuMake store trade coming from inbound Chinese tourists.

“We still have local customers in our daigou network here. That channel’s performing really well.

“What that tells us is that the Chinese economy or market is still very strong. What we’re thinking about is how to get our products there.”

Positioned to benefit

One of the major structural changes that Mr Chan said he expected to see in the aftermath of the pandemic was the shifting priorities of Chinese travellers, with Australia’s “clean image” becoming a major consideration for tourists.

“There’s a lot of talk around what the future customer might look like.

“What we see as one of the big opportunities for the Australian economy is that we’ll probably see a surge in the number of younger travellers,” Mr Chan said.

“Australia will probably be seen as a priority because of the way that we’ve been able to manage the virus so well.

“That’s going to be a really big opportunity for us, and I think for other retailers and brands and other service providers.’

AuMake shares rose 1c to 6.7c on Monday.