New South Wales Premier Kristina Keneally met with the chairman of China’s Bright Food Group this week, to discuss ways to promote the sale and distribution of NSW wines in China’s growing market – now Australia’s fourth-largest wine export destination.

The Hunter Valley-based Tyrrell’s Wines and Brokenwood Wines are distributed through the Bright Food Store – the largest food company in China, with 3300 stores and e-commerce networks, worth more than A $16 billion dollars.

Earlier this year, the NSW Government announced a cooperative agreement with the Bright Food Group and the China Development Bank to help promote Chinese investment in NSW’s agriculture sector.

The Memorandum of Understanding includes assistance for Bright Food Group in identifying investment opportunities in the sugar, dairy and wine industries in NSW, and NSW government support for other possible investment projects.

“The Memorandum of Understanding has the potential for a huge return for NSW food suppliers and is about NSW growers and producers having access to the Chinese market through Bright Food Group,” Keneally said.

“This agreement offers NSW agricultural businesses new opportunities for growth and economic development, particularly in regional NSW.”

In 2009, Australian wine exports to China and Hong Kong increased 57 per cent over the previous year – now worth A$181.5 million.

Bright Food Group lost out in its bid for CSR’s sugar and renewable energy business to oil giant Wilmar International last week.

Share