Nick Champion, Minister for Trade & Investment – South Australia
| Photo Credit: By Special Arrangement
India’s imports of almonds, beans, oranges, wines, lentils, pulses, a number of processed agro meals, sheep meat and many others. from the state of South Australia (SA) have risen considerably because the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) got here into impact a yr in the past, stated Nick Champion, Minister for Trade & Investment – South Australia.
The minister who was on a six-day India tour spoke to The Hindu in Bengaluru: “South Australia has been witnessing growing import demand for lentils, pulses and certain other food items following the zero-tariff rate India introduced last year, resulting in food, wine and agribusiness sector exports to India growing more than 200% in the 12 months until September 2023.”
He stated his state was additionally seeing important alternatives to develop its exports to India particularly merchandise akin to meals and wine, and premium meals merchandise constructing upon the eradicated tariffs on over 85% of Australian items–which can rise to 90% by January 2026.
“Above all these, India is a fast-growing market for premium agri products, food items and high-value wines with consumers’ disposable incomes on the rise,” the minister noticed.
India is South Australia’s fifth-largest export market, with exports price AUD 1.1 billion of products during the last 12 months–a determine that has risen by 11% within the earlier yr.
Beyond dine and wines
According to the minister, India and South Australia share widespread targets, significantly within the demand for clear, inexperienced premium produce, renewable power, well being, worldwide schooling, important applied sciences and area industries.
“As India seeks to grow its 3.5 trillion economy by underpinning it with digi-tech and innovation, energy transition and manufacturing, South Australia is poised to become a ‘partner of choice’ in areas such as e-commerce, renewable energy, critical technologies including IT, defence and space and international education,” Mr. Champion stated.
During the exploratory tour, the minister met along with his counterpart in Karnataka, Mr. M.P Patil and had engagements and roundtable assembly with with TCS, Wipro, Tata Electronics, Infosys, HCLTech, TechMahindra, and varied start-ups targeted on defence and aerospace sectors. He additionally met BigBasket to gauge prospects of exporting extra pulses, grains, and lentils from South Australia to India.. The minister additionally facilitated a particular partnership between South Australian space-tech begin up, HEX20 and Indian space-tech start-up AstroGate Labs.. The collaboration includes integrating HEX 20’s at present satellite tv for pc bus platform with AstroGate’s laser communication options.
He stated firms in South Australia’s innovation areas, Lot Fourteen and Tonsley, would be capable of collaborate with Indian tech companies in AI, machine studying and innovation to speed up improvement of IT merchandise, providers, purposes, platforms and significant applied sciences for area, defence and renewables industries.
In order to create extra avenues for South Australian and Indian companies to attach, the state is at present within the strategy of hiring a Country Director to be based mostly in Mumbai.
On Friday, the minister inaugurated Pro-Wine Mumbai, the place some 10 South Australian wineries are collaborating.
“As a newly-formed state government, we want to reiterate the high value our state places on its relationship with India. We are keen to work more collaboratively and closely with India, in ways that will see mutual benefits for both regions,” he added.
Some 43,598 Indians reside in South Australia. Also, India is its largest supply of worldwide college students, with the coed cohort rising 36% during the last yr to over 14,000 enrolments.
