TAMWORTH has gone to China to drum up business and try to increase trade between the Namoi region and poor Chinese agricultural areas in the market for our commodities.
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Tamworth mayor Col Murray and a council investment development manager left Tamworth yesterday on an 11-day tour to spruik the trade opportunities and tourism targets for business importers and middle-class Chinese travellers.
They’ll be joined in a multi-party push of our agricultural goods by Liverpool Plains mayor Andrew Hope and the council’s acting general manager, as well as a regional business chamber executive.
The two members of the Namoi Councils alliance will spearhead a trade delegation to push trade opportunities.
Cr Murray has told The Leader he saw the trip as a wonderful chance to push the superior commodities being produced in the Namoi region – from Walcha through to Tamworth, and from Gunnedah to Narrabri and Moree.
He’s listed meat, including lamb and beef, cereal crops and oilseeds as priority products the Chinese have shown an interest in sourcing from this area.
“We’ve got a fantastic marketing opportunity here and we are proposing to push the Namoi,” he said.
“Some of their agricultural land has been polluted and it isn’t healthy like ours. Our biosecurity and quarantine standards are one of our great strengths, and their rising middle class is wanting to buy class products they can afford.”
He outlined innovation in agriculture and hard trading in products as the two potential business items the region could push for trade growth.
Cr Murray and TRC manager Craig Dunstan’s first stop is a major tourism conference to promote Tamworth in Xingyi, in Guizhou province.
And they’ll do the honours on a new Friendly City agreement with Quinglon in that province, signing up with government officials on a deal done previously.
A major thrust of the delegation will come with a business meeting in that city, too.
They’ll meet with executives from Hai Quan Enterprises, including owner Tony Ha and chief executive officer Lana Liu, who visited Tamworth earlier this year to look at potential beef cattle research and development.
The two will be joined on the Shanghai leg of the tour by the Liverpool Plains leaders, Namoi members and Tamworth-based NSW Business Chamber officer Derek Tink to inspect Ausbroway, a transaction marketplace which aims to help primary producers and buyers trade directly.
Cr Murray said yesterday they would see the chamber’s Export Growth China project in action and meet with Shanghai-based Commissioner for Trade and Investment NSW, Tony Zhang.