With Tasmania once again open to the world, our Government is taking action to grow and diversify our economic opportunities that will further cement our position as one of the best places to live, invest, and do business.
The recent Trade mission to Singapore and Vietnam is a case in point, and we are seeing positive results for our State, with some participating delegates already locking in contracts, and others progressing new sales and partnerships.
Together, trade with Singapore and Vietnam represents an annual economic injection well above $300 million, but there is significant opportunity to further grow these markets, and the Trade mission is helping us do just that.
Across the five-day mission, meetings were held with senior government, business, education, food, beverage, hospitality and defence industry representatives.
There were more than 100 meetings for Tasmanian food and beverage delegates and site visits to eight premium retailers.
This included Singaporean grocery stores - Little Farm's and Huber's Butchery – who are both now stocking Storm+India Tea and Tasmanian Tonic Company products as a direct result of the Tasmanian stand at Food and Hotels Asia, held in Singapore in September.
With Southeast Asia becoming renowned as a mecca for the world's best spirits, the mission also provided an opportunity to put our award-winning distilled whiskies, gins and vodkas into the glasses of some of the most refined spirit aficionados.
And pleasingly, Hartshorn Distillery has already receiving an order from gourmet grocer, Curatas, to supply six of their product lines.
An in-bound trade mission is also already planned in February 2023 for leading whisky and spirit buyers in Singapore to come to Tasmania to get a full appreciation of our local industry.
And it's not just out premium produce that is making waves – an MOU was signed between the Vietnam Maritime University and the University of Tasmania to foster international cooperation in maritime education and research, and several Tasmanian companies have signed up to attend the Vietnam International Defence 2022 exposition in December.
I expect in coming months, more contracts will be realised given the genuine interest from everyone on the Trade mission, which will further grow our markets, so that jobs and our economy can benefit.
