A NEW Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) report released on Friday points to significant changes in Malaysia’s food consumption as a strong opportunity for Australian exporters.

ABARE executive director Phillip Glyde on Friday explained

that the report, ‘Changing food consumption and imports in Malaysia: Opportunities for Australian agricultural exports’, shows that while Australia is already the leading agricultural exporter to Malaysia there may be many new avenues to target.

“With continued income and population growth, Malaysian food consumption is shifting away from starchy staples such as rice and cassava and more toward wheat-based products including breads and bakery products, meat, dairy products, seafood, fruit and vegetables,” Mr Glyde said.

“With limited domestic production of many agricultural products, food demand is expected to increase and to be met largely by imports,” Mr Glyde noted.

Australia is the leading agricultural exporter to Malaysia. Other imports important for Australia include wool, live cattle, vegetables, sheep meat, beef and fruits.

The report found that the food processing industry in Malaysia is growing, with many intermediate inputs being imported.

As an example, wheat and sugar are used for further processing for bakery products and confectionaries as well as the use of meat in the production and export of halal products which provides export opportunities for Australia.

However, trade with Malaysia is not without its challenges.

“Despite applied tariffs on agricultural commodities being mostly low or zero, other trade barriers such as tariff quotas and license requirements of a range of agricultural products could restrict access to Malaysia’s market,” Mr Glyde explained.

“In addition, there are Malaysian government controls on domestic prices for some food products such as wheat based products and sugar. These controls could hinder growth in Australia’s exports of these commodities to Malaysia,” Mr Glyde concluded.