E&OE...............
As I come to the end of my visit to Tokyo on this visit to
Japan I can't think of a more delightful venue than a promotion of Australian
wine and cheese, in which to spend my final hours in Tokyo.
Japan is a huge market for Australian food and beverages
and the total of our exports are worth more than $3 billion. That is not to say we do not seek to make
that figure much larger. Of particular
significance has been the growth of wine and cheese as exports to Japan. There used to be a time when the only wine
imported into Japan came from Europe, but that is rapidly changing and nights
like tonight are a partial reminder to our competitors of just how determined
Australia is to rapidly expand her wine and cheese exports to the huge market
that is Japan.
I want to commend the Australian Wine Export Council for
opening an Australian Wine Bureau in Tokyo.
I want to commend the work of that Bureau and I understand that there
will be a series of promotions, including a major promotion in all the
restaurants and bars of this prestige hotel, the Hyatt, of Australian wine in
November. And I understand that this
very hotel has already held a number of Australian wine promotions
recently. I thank it for doing so and I
endorse its remarkably good taste.
Australian wine is one of our great exporting successes of
recent years. In 1990, a bare nine
years ago, our exports were $114 million.
We now look set to break the $1 billion mark this year if exports to
Japan are anything to go by. And the
quality of our wine is also increasingly recognised in Japan, with an
Australian red winning the trophy for the best red wine at the inaugural Japan
International Wine Challenge held late last year in Tokyo.
Likewise our dairy industry has enjoyed quite spectacular
export success in recent years.
Australia is the leading supplier of cheese to Japan with a market share
of more than 40 per cent and that represents just under half of Australia's
total cheese exports and a quarter of all Australian cheese production.
And that particular story is very relevant on a day when
the fluctuating fortunes of Australia's trade overseas is very much in the news
back home. What it reminds us is that
you can never generalise about trade.
What you do is go out and fight for market share on every conceivable
front. And to use a famous Australian
expression, you win some and you lose some, and we have certainly won some when
it has come to Australian wine and Australian dairy produce into Japan.
And finally, I'm delighted to remark that the most recent
breakthrough in Australian exports of agricultural products to Japan has been
the launch last month of Tasmanian Fuji apples, with Australian easy-peel
citrus to be launched shortly. I
understand that unfortunately if you want to buy Tasmanian Fuji apples in a
supermarket in Tokyo, you probably can't because I'm told most of them have
already been sold out.
So ladies and gentlemen it is with enormous pleasure, if I
can be suitable armed, that I propose a toast to the endeavour of our wine and
cheese exporters, and most particularly might I say to the discerning palate of
so many of our Japanese friends. It
really has been one of the great success stories of Australian export over the
last 10 years and it is always of course a double pleasure to be associated,
not only with a successful export, but also a successful export that brings
such enormous pleasure to so many Australians and indeed to so many people
around the world.
I propose a toast to the endeavour of the wine and cheese
exporters of Australia. We are indeed
very indebted to them and extremely proud of them.
Our wine and cheese exporters.
Thank you.