Students market Aussie exports to the world

University of Queensland (UQ) students are departing for all corners of Asia and the Middle East this week, charged with the job of investigating new export opportunities for Australian produce.

Clients like Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and a number of horticultural companies have enlisted teams of final year Agribusiness students to research markets for fruit and vegetables in Vietnam and Dubai, grevillea flowers in Japan and Australian beef in China.

Two more teams will assess the success of one of the Supermarket to Asia projects in Singapore and Thailand for the Federal Government.

Agribusiness program coordinator Associate Professor Ray Collins said clients and students had equally high expectations of the overseas marketing projects, hoping to translate export opportunities into both commercial and academic results.

“These are exciting market opportunities which our clients have real expectations of capturing and given these projects are also a major part of the students’ final year assessment, there’s a lot riding on them,” Associate Professor Collins said.

“Separate groups are investigating the establishment of direct supply chains from Queensland farms to Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Another group has investigated ways of extending the shelf life of grevillea flowers and is now travelling to Japan to explore subsequent market opportunities.

“I am travelling to China with a group engaged by MLA to conduct market research on consumer attitudes towards Aussie beef in light of China’s recent admission to the World Trade Organisation.

"Another two groups will be evaluating the in-store Australian Pavilions set up in Thai and Singaporean supermarkets under the Federal Government’s National Food Industry strategy.”

Associate Professor Collins said the success of the overseas project over the 12 years its had been running was heavily dependent on students performing to client expectations.

“Since this project started, our Agribusiness students have undertaken market research for nearly 50 agribusinesses in 16 countries, and some clients have come back for further involvement up to four and five times,” Associate Professor Collins said.

“We also know from surveys of those clients that almost one in two have done more business as a result of the work that students have done for them.”

For further information, contact Associate Professor Ray Collins on (07) 5460 1328, or Brad Henderson, Marketing Coordinator, Faculty of NRAVS, on (07) 5460 1229 or 0409.265.587