More than 300 seed potato farmers across South Australia and Victoria will be celebrating after a breakthrough in securing new market access to Indonesia.
Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, David Littleproud, said delivering this market access would provide opportunities for seed potato farmers to now compete in premium markets with the best produce the world has to offer.
“The export protocol has been on the boil for a while and we finally got it over the line - this will take an industry with a current production value of $520.3 million, to new heights,” Mr Littleproud said.
“This signing paves the way for trade in seed potatoes from Victoria and South Australia to commence as soon as possible, whenever farmers are ready.
“This is a fantastic result for farmers in these two states—as major seed potato producers—and builds on current seed potato access for Western Australia.”
Mr Littleproud said Australia and Indonesia had a strong bilateral partnership, with two-way trade worth $4.28 billion in 2016-17 in agriculture alone.
“Australia is a trading nation and we continue to support our farmers as they sell our premium produce for premium prices to overseas markets,” Mr Littleproud said.
The Coalition Government has secured free-trade agreements with three significant export markets—Japan, Korea and China—and just signed the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement and recently concluded the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Through the Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper, we are investing $30.8 million to break down technical barriers to trade, and appointed five new agricultural counsellors in key small markets.