SYDNEY: Australia’s largest ever private trade delegation was due to arrive in China on Sunday.
More than 200 delegates, including Queensland state ministers, agricultural producers and exporters will be on the visit to Shanghai aimed at building on the A$160 billion (Dh441 billion; $120 billion) trade relationship between Australia and China.
“We have brought together businesses from banks to exporters and freight companies,” Ben Lyons, the group’s leader, said in a statement.
Among the high profile members of the “AccessChina” delegation are Qantas Airways Ltd and both National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Bank’s agri-business units.
Qantas Freight, which is looking to expand capacity in Asia, is hosting a networking dinner that Lyons said would help “educate the Shanghai business community on our regional capability when combined with an international freight provider”.
The group left from Wellcamp Airport, a new A$200 million privately built air freight facility in Queensland, which will begin weekly freight-only flights next month. Cathay Pacific will operate the service from Wellcamp and Hong Kong.
Australia has been pushing to become the “delicatessen of Asia”, tapping its favourable climate to send crates of produce such as figs and edible flowers to store shelves across the increasingly affluent region.
But finding space on flights has proven a headache for some Australian producers, who say freight export capabilities are not keeping up with growing demand for products from Asia’s middle class.
Industries represented on the AccessChina trip include health, aged care, agriculture, education, manufacturing and tourism. Delegates will tour sites including Alibaba Group Holding’s Hangzhou Campus, Yangshan Deepwater Port, Baosteel and Shanghai Electric.
— Reuters
