Doorstop in Hobart, Tas

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
DOORSTOP
HOBART
FRIDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2025

Subjects: Live rock lobster exports; international trade.

JULIE COLLINS, MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FORESTRY: So, this is great news that Australian lobster is back on the menu in China in terms of the Lunar New Year. What we're hearing from our fisher folk is that they have been inundated with orders and indeed, we've now shipped over 2 million kilos of Australian live rock lobster back into the Chinese market. And that's good news for fishers on the ground. More than a million from Western Australia has been packed up, almost half a million from South Australia. And here in my home state of Tasmania now, nearly 200,000 kilos of live rock lobster going into that Chinese market. This is a great relief for local fishers who have obviously had issues with market access. It's also, of course, the end of the $20 billion worth of trade impediments that our country had with China, that our government has been going quietly and systematically about working with our neighbours and the region to actually get access back into that market that's so critical for Australian fishers of live rock lobster. So, this is great news for the live rock lobster industry and indeed their families and the local communities around them.

JOURNALIST: Beautiful. And so how big is this industry to Australia?

COLLINS: Well, it's worth millions of dollars for Australian live rock lobster fishers. It's a very significant industry and as we can see, you know this is the important time of the year. So, for us to have gotten that access in time for the Lunar New Year, it's been critical for the fishers in terms of timing.

JOURNALIST: And it's a pretty uncertain world. So, what's being done to protect fishers and other farmers as well from future trade impediments?

COLLINS: Well, we've obviously been working systematically and quietly with our trading partners right across the globe. We continue to have discussions. We obviously have had you know a recent free trade agreement in terms of UAE. We have been working hard right across the board to ensure that our great producers here in Australia, whether they be fishers or farmers, are getting access to global markets, which is, what we think is a superior product.

JOURNALIST: And is it a good idea to be focusing so much on international trade when it is such an uncertain world?

COLLINS: Well, obviously our big focus as a government has been on restoring the international relations and we've successfully done that. Australia is a net exporter when it comes to agriculture products. More than 70 per cent of what we produce gets exported, so we need to be working on that all the time. What we've seen is Australian agriculture trade is now the most diversified it has ever been. We're now around access in terms of 169 markets. So, that is the most diversified our agricultural trade has ever been.

JOURNALIST: And are you worried about any flow on effects from Donald Trump's presidency and, you know, the trade restrictions and the tariffs he'll place on certain countries?

COLLINS: We obviously have a mutual supportive agreement with, free trade agreement, with the United States that both the United States and Australia benefits from. We'll continue to have discussions to ensure that both of our countries continue to benefit from that free trade agreement.

JOURNALIST: Anything else that you'd like to add?

COLLINS: I just want to say a big thanks to our fishers of live rock lobster for their patience as we've gone about working through some of the technical aspects to get this market access and to say a big thank you for meeting the orders and getting our product around the world.