Speaking at the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) earlier this week, Tim Ford, CEO of Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), said that even if tariffs were lifted tomorrow, TWE would need years to build up their operations again.
Hosted in collaboration with the University of Technology (UTS) Business School, the event took place on the heels of Trade Minister Don Farrell’s landmark visit to China this week.
The first visit from an Australian Trade Minister since 2019, Ford said Farrell’s recent visit was a “hugely significant” step on the journey to resuming bilateral trade.
Although Farrell returned without any concrete concessions for Australian exporters, Ford said from his point of view the meeting was a success and another step in the right direction.
“There’s some commentary that it’s a disappointing outcome, but I don’t agree with that, I think it was a really important visit,” said Ford.
And while trade is still curtailed, Ford said TWE had become adept at planning different scenarios and diversifying its global presence as they wait for the two countries to resolve their trade disputes.
“It’s going to take us two, three, four years to start building up the Australian side of it again,” said Ford, adding that they’d never again return to a business model that relies on trade with just one market.
“We’ve worked too hard to build the brands and built our markets outside China to turn that off overnight,” he said, adding that while TWE doesn’t have stockpiles of premium wines, it can resume supplying more affordable $30 bottles “pretty quickly” if and when trade resumes.
Before 2020, Australia was the biggest supplier of wine to China and TWE, Australia’s largest winemaker, earned a third of its profits from that one market.
Photo credit - Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI)
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