2012/715 Preliminary investigation into alternative markets in Asia for Australian Southern Rockobster

By The Grey Group

The Australian Southern Rock lobster industry is highly dependent on the Hong Kong / Chinese market with in excess of 95% of exports from the fishery going to Hong Kong /China. The objective of this project was to make the industry more resilient to disruptions in the Hong Kong/China supply chain by diversifying into alternative markets within the Asian Region. Attendance at Food and Hotel Asia 2012 provided a very effective and efficient way for Southern Rocklobster (SRL) Ltd to gather market intelligence that could help them to expand their market opportunities throughout Asia. The event saw more than 60,000 industry visitors, exhibiting staff, conference speakers and delegates, and media over the four days of the exhibition.

During the four days of FHA 2012 the SRL team conducted market research surveys with 38 interviewees from 11 countries that were identified as high potential leads. From all 38 people, 17 were based in Singapore, 7 were from Malaysia, 4 from Indonesia, 3 from Thailand, and respectively 1 from each of these following countries : Hong Kong (China), India, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Qatar, and the UAE.

Information about competitors, pricing, logistics, product format, quantity and quality expectations/parameters were collected (based on the value chain survey instruments used in other CRC market research projects) and analysed. This was used to inform the development of a larger market diversification resilience project for SRL.