Growing Demand for Australian Agricultural Export in Asia

The article discusses the growing demand for Australian agricultural export in Asia, particularly in the fruit and vegetable sector. It highlights the challenges faced by vegetable growers in Australia due to differences in preferences and lack of quarantine protocol in Asian markets. The article recommends that farmers should increase production and adapt advanced technology to meet the growing demand. Vegetable growers should also change their product line to match the preferences of Asian buyers.

Running Head: ECONOMIC ASSIGNMENT
Economic Assignment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Article summary in brief..................................................................................................................2
Analysis of the article......................................................................................................................3
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Australian agriculture sector is known for its significant contribution in in domestic and
external sector. In addition to feeding its own population, Australia holds an important position
in terms of agricultural export in the world market. The primary exported products of Australia
include cereal grains, goat meat, beef, lamb and others (agriculture.gov.au 2018). Fisheries and
forestry export are estimated to have a value of $1.4 billion and $3 billion respectively. With a
high growth rate in the agricultural sector Australia now able to meet growing food demand of
several developed and developing nation.
Article summary in brief
In recent years, Australia’s fruit and vegetable export to the Asian market has
documented a considerable growth. The fruit and vegetable export to the growing market of
Japan, China, Hong Kong and India has become center of attraction for local growers. Mark
Bennett, the agribusiness head of Australia said in the report that thee highest paying market of
Asia along with extended market of South Korea and Middle East has marked boom for
Australian growers.
The growing demand from is resulted from the rise in middle income class and their
increased demand for protein and meat. This impact on fresh fruit and vegetable demand bring
an opportunity to gain from exporting their product to this growing market. Globally, the per
capita consumption of vegetables and fruits have accounted a respective growth of 3.6 percent
and 14.6 in every year (weeklytimesnow.com.au 2018). The producers of nut and fresh fruits in
Australia have already benefitted from growing Asian demand. The vegetables growers are
however cannot serve demand from Asia because of a disparity in preferences. The two most

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harvested vegetables in Australia are tomatoes and potatoes. The main Australian export to Asia
however include asparagus, celery, cassava and onions.
As reported in the article the vegetable growers in Australia are facing trouble due to lack
of quarantine protocol in Asian market especially in China. The protocol however has been
strictly maintained in Australia for imported fruit and vegetables which include cherries, citrus,
asparagus, lettuce, Tasmanian apple and recently added to the list Stone fruit (Mittinty et al.
2015).
Analysis of the article
Demand for a good is expressed as the desire of the buyers for a good depending on their
affordability. The principle determinant of demand is price. Except price the other determinants
of demand are taste and preferences, income, price of substitute and complementary goods and
such other factors (Baumol and Blinder 2015). In Asia, the proportion of middle income class
has risen. This group has raised their demand for fresh vegetables, fruit other sources of protein.
The increased demand however cannot be fulfilled by domestic production. The excess demand
needs to be fulfilled with import. The growing Asian demand for agricultural products thus has
increased the demand for Agricultural export (canberratimes.com.au 2018). The grower of nut
and fresh fruit of Australia have successfully explored the benefit of growing demand in the
Asian market.

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Figure 1: Effect of increased demand in Asia
(Source: as created by Author)
The vegetable growers are struggling because of difference in nature of Australian
vegetables produced and that demanded in Asia. Another form of hurdle for local vegetable
growers of Australia is the absence of quarantine protocol in Asia. The quarantine protocol in
Australia is aimed at maintaining a healthy status of plants, animal and human being (Lyons and
Lawrence 2017). The extensive use of chemicals in form of pesticides or herbicides in restricted
in Australian agriculture and thus makes the agricultural produced healthy. Because of lack of
quarantine protocol, most of produced celery in Australia are exported to Malaysia, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Japan and UAE rather than to Asia.
Recommendation
The growing demand from Asian market has contributed to an increase in demand for
Australian export. The demand has accounted a steady increase in the past three years. The

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challenge for Australian farmers now is to increase production in line with the increased demand.
Advanced technology should be adapted to increase production.
The vegetable growers should change their line of production and should focus on
vegetable production aligned with the taste and preference of Asian buyers. This will help the
vegetable growers to gain from increased Asian demand for vegetables and fruits.
Conclusion
The middle income group in Asia and their demand for meat and protein products
benefits local growers of Australia by increasing their export demand. The growers of fresh fruit
and nut growers have already reaped the benefits of expanded demand. The vegetable growers
however needs to make change in their product line to match the preferences in Asian market.
The farmers in Australia need to increase their volume of production to fully meet export
demand.

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References
Agriculture.gov.au. (2018). Exporting from Australia. [online] Available at:
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/export/from-australia [Accessed 26 Apr. 2018].
Baumol, W.J. and Blinder, A.S., 2015. Microeconomics: Principles and policy. Cengage
Learning.
Gray, D. (2018). There's more to Asia than just China, ANZ tells Aussie farmers. [online]
Canberra Times. Available at:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/business/the-economy/australian-agribusinesses-told-there-s-
much-more-to-asia-than-china-20180425-p4zbkt.html [Accessed 26 Apr. 2018].
Lyons, K. and Lawrence, G., 2017. Institutionalisation and resistance: organic agriculture in
Australia and New Zealand. In Food, Nature and Society (pp. 81-100). Routledge.
Mittinty, M., Whittle, P., Burgman, M. and Mengersen, K., 2015. The Role of Surveillance in
Evaluating and Comparing International Quarantine Systems. Biosecurity Surveillance:
Quantitative Approaches, (6), p.137.
Weeklytimesnow.com.au. (2018). Asia’s export promise. [online] Available at:
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/agribusiness/horticulture/anz-report-australian-vegetable-
exports-into-asia-to-grow/news-story/19a1a1d55d59375a07f5fdad553b330a [Accessed 26 Apr.
2018].