Press conference in Gippsland, Victoria

6 March 2024

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
PRESS CONFERENCE
GIPPSLAND
WEDNESDAY, 6 MARCH 2024

SUBJECTS: ASEAN; Australian agriculture’s trade opportunities; ag-tech; sustainability in farming; disaster assistance for Gippsland region

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: Well thanks very much for coming here today, everyone. As you’ve seen, the purpose of today’s visit is to showcase some of Australia’s greatest agricultural produce and also the incredible innovation, research and technology that Australian agriculture is famous for. And where else better to do that than right here in the beautiful Gippsland region of Victoria?

As you’ve seen, today we’ve brought a delegation of Asian business leaders and political leaders from the agriculture sector along with Australian agriculture leaders to showcase some of that fine Australian produce, but also some of the world-leading research that is undertaken right here at this Smartfarm here at Ellinbank in Victoria.

Australia is known internationally for being a reliable supplier of high-quality produce, including from regions like Gippsland. But we’re also becoming increasingly known for some of the cutting-edge research and technology that we’ve been taking forward in our own farming systems to become more efficient, more productive and more sustainable, and we’re seeing increasing interest in sharing that knowledge and that learning from other countries as well.

Today’s delegation was headed by the Vietnamese Minister for Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Vietnam is a critical market for Australia’s agricultural exports. In fact, Vietnam is already the fourth biggest market for Australian agriculture, particularly in sectors like wheat, like beef, cotton, dairy, but also there’s emerging interest in a lot of our horticultural products as well. And I was able to have some good discussions with the Minister from Vietnam about how we can take that relationship forward. As I say, the relationship is founded on some of those core exports like beef, wheat, barley, cotton, but there’s been recent progress also in a number of horticultural products. In the last year or so we’ve been able to open access for our nectarine and peach producers here in Australia, and we think there’s some very promising opportunities to open up export opportunities to Vietnam for a number of new products as well.

So I think today has been a very productive visit. It’s also enabled a number of the chairs of our Research and Development Corporations to talk with Asian agribusiness leaders about what they can supply to their countries as well. And I know that the discussions we’ve been having through the ASEAN conference over the last couple of days, as well as today’s visit, means more good news for Australian farmers and producers going forward.
Happy to take any questions.

JOURNALIST: So can you talk about some of those deals that could be made for trade, in agricultural trade?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah well, as I say, we’re already exporting over $1 billion a year of Australian wheat, of Australian beef and other products as well to Vietnam. But we know that Vietnam - just as is the case for South East Asia generally - has a growing population and a population that’s becoming ever wealthier by the year. And what that means is that there’s going to be more interest in Australian produce going forward from Vietnam and other South East Asian markets. As I said, Vietnam is already Australia’s fourth biggest agricultural market, but if you put all of South East Asia together, that is our second biggest agriculture market, only just after China. And with a booming middle class that’s looking for higher quality food, healthier food, more sustainable food, regions like Gippsland and Australia in general is incredibly well-positioned to service that growing market. So I’d be very hopeful that in the coming years and as a result of discussions here today, we can expand exports for those existing products but also get new products into the market in Vietnam that aren’t currently there.

JOURNALIST: What might some of those new products might be?

MURRAY WATT: Well I definitely think there are some opportunities in the horticulture sector. But, equally, I was surprised to learn about the amount of seafood and fisheries exports that Australia is already providing to a country like Vietnam. I think everyone understands that Vietnam has a very large aquaculture sector of its own and it’s a very big fishing population. But we’re already selling hundreds of millions of dollars of Australian seafood into that market. But I think there’s opportunity to do more. The Minister was incredibly impressed with the research and technology that he saw here in the dairy industry. We are undertaking some dairy exports to Vietnam, but I think we could expand that as well. Obviously Gippsland producers supply about 20 per cent of our Australian dairy market. I’d love to see them being able to supply 20 per cent of the Vietnamese market as well, and we’re going to be able to have those discussions now having established that relationship.

JOURNALIST: What were some of the research and technology that the Vietnamese Minister was [indistinct] about?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, well, Vietnam, like all countries around the world, is struggling with the impacts of climate change. Vietnam is obviously a massive rice producer, it tends to take place in areas with heavy rainfall, as you would expect. But they’ve been experiencing very large floods and rising sea levels in their country just as we have been experiencing with natural disasters here in Australia. So they were very interested to hear about some of the research being done right here on the Ellinbank Smartfarm in things like how you can reduce methane emissions from cattle, how you can use low carbon varieties of rice, which we’re actually growing and researching here in Australia, that are finding their way into Vietnam.

We’ve got a number of great development projects underway already that are funded through the Department of Foreign Affairs that are teaching Vietnamese farmers how they can adopt some of those low carbon methods to produce more, become more profitable but with lower emissions. So that’s great news for those farmers’ bottom lines, but it’s also great news for the environment.

JOURNALIST: What’s the Government planning to do in relation to the impact on farmers in Mirboo North who don’t have access to the emergency recovery funds?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, so obviously putting my Emergency Management hat on, I’m very conscious that this part of Victoria recently experienced those terrible storms, particularly Mirboo North, but I know the region in general was affected. You’d be aware that we’ve already provided a range of joint federal-state support to people who’ve been impacted in those disasters. But I would expect that as the impacts become clearer, it’s very likely that the Victorian Government will come to us seeking additional support. Our position has always been to support the requests of different states. So as those impacts become clearer, I’m sure the Victorian Government will have more to say about that.

JOURNALIST: The Victorian Farmers’ Federation called for donations to assist with disaster-affected agribusinesses as they say that they haven’t had enough support. What would you say to the farming community?

MURRAY WATT: Well look, I think one of the great things about Australia through natural disasters is that we often do put our hands in our own pockets to donate to people who have been impacted by that. But we also need to make sure that there is appropriate government support. As I say, there has been a significant amount of support already provided by the Federal and Victorian Governments to this region, as there has been to Western Victoria with the bushfires that they’ve experienced recently. But what we do when natural disasters hit is look at immediate support in the days following, but as the weeks and months roll on further support is provided to communities as the impacts become clearer. And I’d expect that to occur here as well.

JOURNALIST: Farmers have also told the ABC that they’re quite confused about, you know, the decisions that the Government makes and what constitutes a disaster and what doesn’t. Would the Government consider ways to make these processes clearer?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, we also want to make sure that our processes for providing disaster relief are as simple for people as possible. We’ve actually undertaken quite a bit of work even since becoming the government to simplify those processes, but I recognise that there’s more to be done. We’re in the middle of a couple of big reviews about disaster support at the moment, and one of the aims of that is to simplify the processes even more. So I’d hope that once those reviews are complete we’ll be able to make the process even simpler for people.

All good? Thanks everyone.