City’s fast trade hub services target Asia

NORTH Queensland’s businesses are in the box seat to tap into the world’s wealthiest markets of the Asia Pacific with new shipping services from Townsville providing some of Australia’s fastest transit times, the JCU Asian Market Forum has been told.

While the provision of professional services and exports of international education and tourism have growing potential, large trading hubs are opening to the North’s agribusiness sector to sell produce such as fruit and vegetables. Port of Townsville trade development executive Maria James said it was an exciting time in which the port was working with agricultural organisations to capitalise on the introduction of more shipping capacity and transit times of as little as eight days into Singapore.

Shipping line ANL introduced new services into Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia from Townsville earlier this year, while last week Swire Shipping announced shorter transit services into Singapore, Shanghai and Ningbo, China.

Mariana Express Lines has longstanding services into Asia from Townsville.

Ms James said the capacity was developing rapidly and opening big opportunities.

She said the import of equipment for large- scale solar projects in North Queensland was helping drive big increases in container trade, providing opportunities for agricultural cargoes on return journeys, particularly into Singapore.

Exports of northern- grown mangoes, melons and avocados could all be shipped from Townsville.

With the help of Trade and Investment Queensland, representatives of more than a dozen Chinese companies attended the forum, seeking to invest or partner with businesses.

One- on- one meetings were arranged with five local groups, including Townsville firms looking to export professional services.

Commonwealth Bank senior economist Tom Piotrowski said the Asia Pacific was now the epicentre of global growth with a middle class expected to hit 3.25 billion people by 2030, more than six times that of Northern America or Europe.

“China is now bigger than the US economy and it is going to get bigger.

“We are where all the action is going to be,” Mr Piotrowski said.

Professor Wenge Fu of Beijing’s China Agricultural University said Chinese consumers were getting more sophisticated tastes, shopped online with smart phones and wanted Australia’s high- quality beef, lamb and seafood.

In tourism, Chinese embarked on 120 million overseas trips last year, spending $ 261 billion, almost half of that on luxury goods.