Widening our horizons
p. 32 · Read in the full issue
THE main purpose in setting up the Forum’s office of the South Pacific Trade Commission in Sydney 14 years ago was to help island products penetrate the Australian market.
The office concentrated its efforts on making Australian wholesalers and consumers aware of the variety of products available and getting them established in the market.
A lot of that early, and successful, work concentrated particularly on establishing foodstuffs of every kind, and finished clothing, mainly from Fiji.
In fact it was a surprise to Austra lians just what a great variety of island goods there was available for import, other than the old standbys of island crafts, with which they were already
familiar from their various holiday trips in the Pacific.
Of course not all the island goods available for export were of the quality and type that would find a ready sale in Australia, so this brought the commission into the business of product adaptation, where we suggested manufacturers make changes to their products as a result of what we learnt from market surveys, trials and importers’ requirements.
This, naturally enough, led to us encouraging the develop ment of new products that would fill niches in the Australian market.
Thus inevitably the trade aims in the Sydney office have widened over the years as the horizons of island traders have widened and we ourselves have identified new opportunities for business. Even casual readers of this regular PIAI column will know that we have been involved in finding opportunities for island trade in third countries, including Japan, the United States, Canada and Europe, and particularly in increasingnrade between island countries. We also seek overseas equity partners for island business, so as to increase both capital and opportunities. All this has involved us in providing market information of all kinds trade statistics, buyers’ want lists, competitive prices, company details, credit references, etc and we have had to build up computer programs to help us get it quickly and accurately. We’ve also been arranging business and trade training courses to further extend business opportunities in the islands.
Despite this great extension of our original aims, I’m very conscious of the fact that we can’t afford to slacken our interest at the grass roots that is, the trade that is available to the islands right on the doorstep, in Australia and New Zealand. Transport and communication links favour it; problems can be solved quickly and inexpensively and usually face-to-face; there are no language difficulties and our systems of government and doing business arc similar.
Thus the commission’s small staff still finds time to enhance island business opportunities in the Australian market place,
such as arranging island represen tation in trade fairs and introducing island businessmen to the right people in Australia. In fact, we find there are periods when we concen trate almost all our energies on building up this Australian relation ship with the islands, such as in the past few months.
In last month’s report, for in stance, I told how the islands are beginning to benefit from the open ing of a new doorway into Australia the small port of Yamba, on the east coast between Sydney and Brisbane. It has been declared a port of first entry', and through it and the nearby city of Grafton, the islands are establishing direct links with Australian business that could bring abundant returns for everybody.
Business can be promoted much more efficiently, more cheaply and with greater speed than in the case of, say, a city the size of Sydney, and we’ve spent a lot of our time in helping it along.
This decentralisation of Australian trade away from the major cities is important and we can expect our trade opportunities to continue. In March for example, I was in the large NSW town of Cowra, on the Lachlan River west of Sydney, for part of Cowra’s 10-day Festival of International Understanding.
The reason for my visit was that Cowra had chosen Western Samoa as its “guest nation” for the festival. The festivities were opened by Western Samoa’s High Com missioner to Australia, Feesago Siaosi Fepuleai, and were attended by a whole contingent of Western Samoans, including representatives of Aggie Grey’s and Polynesian Airlines.
There was a Western Samoan Cultural, Trade and Tourism Exhibition and an art exhibition, and every school child in the district had spent weeks studying Samoa, and producing school projects and posters about the country. One day during the festival Dominic Fonoti and Peter Alefosio, from Aggie’s, visited four schools to tell the youngsters about life in Samoa. Prizes at the festival included a trip for two to Western Samoa donated by Aggie’s and Polynesian.
Festival co-ordinator was Keira Lockyer, formerly with Polynesian and well-known for her work in the islands, and now living in Cowra, where she and husband Graham run an up-market restaurant, the Ilfracombe.
The Trade Commission helped out, of course, in the trade display. Our philosophy is to cover all bases in South Seas trade matters, and not to neglect any opportunity. The islands must protect the trade it has already established on its doorstep and seek to expand it, while at the same time developing new opportunities in third countries.