Seafood CRC: preliminary investigation into alternative markets in Asia for Southern Rocklobster
The Australian Southern Rock Lobster Industry is highly dependent on the Hong Kong / Chinese market with in excess of 86% of exports from the fishery going to Hong Kong /China. In the past Taiwan and Japan have been a viable alternatives to China, however their weakening economies and the high prices in the Chinese market has resulted in the dependence on a single market.
The traditional trading channel into the China market has experienced some significant disruptions and the consequent increased risks have had a significant negative impact on the fishery.
Southern Rock Lobster Limited's strategic plan identified that the industry needs to investigate and develop alternative markets. The objective is to make the industry more resilient to disruptions and the regular fluctuations in demand and price in the China market.
Food and Hotel Asia 2012 is a serendipitous opportunity for the industry to meet with key decision makers (purchasers, agents and distributors) from the Asian region to conduct interviews and obtain robust information about the potential for establishing new markets in Singapore and other Asian countries. Simply relying on passing traffic will not ensure success therefore it is proposed that Grey Group Singapore be engaged to target at least 40 key people and ensure that substantive interviews can be held. Information about competitors, pricing, logistics, product format, quantity and quality expectations/parameters will be collected and analysed. This will then be used to inform the development of a larger market resilience project for SRL.
