TO EXPAND Victoria's food exports into the growing Asian market, farmers and agribusiness workers need to appreciate cultural differences and consumer demands particularly for high-end products, guest speakers said at the Victorian Agribusiness Summit 2014 last week.
The The Food Boom Summit-Growing the Value Chain to Asia event gave central Victorian producers a chance to network with Asian business people and learn about trade possibilities with countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and, of course, China.
The founding chief executive officer of Asialink at the University of Melbourne, Jenny McGregor, said the centre's research had revealed some of the opportunities and challenges for Australian businesses hoping to enter Asian markets.
"A lot of businesses have an Asian strategy, but are worried about whether they can execute them because of the challenge of cultural understanding," Ms McGregor told the about 80 delegates.
Culture includes things we can see as well as history, shared ways of thinking and other things that we cannot, she said.
Key differences include in Asia there is a wider gap in the power of bosses compared to employees and Asian societies are much more collective than individualistic, compared to Australia.
"If people are alert to and respectful of these cultural differences, they will be more successful in building relationships vital to business."
She shared anecdotes of friends successfully doing business in Asia that demonstrated it could take years to build friendships and trust.
There is strong and growing demand for Victorian fresh fruit and vegetables, antipasto and dairy produce in the Malaysian and other South East Asian markets, said Sing Wee Yek, who has been importing such food for 18 years with Niche Brands Malaysia.
As the director of the company with an extensive distribution network for chilled and frozen foods including 32 delis and chef supply networks, Mr Yek said he was looking to expand portfolio of Victorian produce.
As with other South East Asian countries, Malaysia's growing population includes many people who have travelled overseas and are becoming more discerning, wanting the best global foods including small goods from Europe, he said.
See more in this week's Stock & Land.