It was announced in January that Canberra International Airport would commence flights to Singapore and Wellington in September, via Singapore Airlines, giving farmers a more direct link to booming export markets in Asia.
Federal Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb will address an event at the Airport on Friday 12 February where the new overseas air-routes will be explored in terms of passenger travel and export opportunity for farmers.
The International Freight Symposium will also include input from local horticultural businesses and talks by ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and NSW Transport & Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance.
Mr Robb said given the importance of trade and investment to the national economy the efficient movement of both goods and people was “fundamental”.
Federal Liberal MP Angus Taylor believes the new international routes out of Canberra are a welcome stepping stone to enhance farm-exports – especially time-sensitive produce like cherries - and ensure his Hume electorate is “globally connected”.
Mr Taylor said the new air routes provided opportunity to export cherries produced by growers in his electorate like those in the Yass Valley and Young Shire and other products.
But he said cherry exports were also restricted by biosecurity protocols, or non-tariff trade barriers due to fruit-fly.
However, those limits must be removed, to open up trade opportunities like those Tasmanian cherry growers are experiencing in markets like Korea, he said.
At a forum in Yass last year to explore trade opportunities under the government’s Free Trade Agreements with Japan, China and Korea, Cherry Growers Australia export working group chair Hugh Molloy said the new deals only delivered market access to 30 per cent of the cherry industry’s production base, due to non-tariff trade barriers.
Mr Robb said it was a “most opportune time” to enhance connectivity with Singapore given the Australian government was working closely with the Singaporean government to develop a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
