Australian produce to be showcased in leading Hong Kong supermarket

A major Hong Kong-based supermarket chain could soon have a dedicated aisle stocked with Western Australian (WA) food, after a ministerial trade visit garnered positive results for Australian exporters.

WA's Food and Agriculture Minister Ken Baston met with representatives from supermarket chain 759 Store last week, with an aim to stock fresh, Western Australian produce in its stores across Hong Kong.

He said on Tuesday the talks ended positively, meaning there could be a lucrative opportunity for WA farmers to showcase their products to Asia in the near future.

"The 759 stores have some 60 countries they bring product from and they have some 22,000 products, so they are always looking for something new and exciting," Baston told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

He said that the move was especially important as Hong Kong was a "gateway to China", which would prove to be an important step for securing the future of agriculture in Western Australia.

"Eighty percent of all agriculture and food products are exported from Western Australia," he said.

"So continuing to find markets for our product is very important.

"Hong Kong is a high-value and vibrant market for Western Australian products -- its just the kind of market we want to support our premium food producers to strive towards."

Baston said that a broad range of products would be put forward to the supermarket chain, with the produce "ranging from wine, honey and seafood to baked goods and bush foods."

A Western Australian dairy company has already secured a deal with Hong Kong, which has resulted in WA yogurt being sold on Asian shelves.

Mundella Foods has been stocking its product in Hong Kong's ParknShop, and general manager David Day said that he hoped to get a stronger foothold in the Asian market.

"I don't think you can really beat being there in the (Asian) environment," he said on Tuesday.

Day applauded Baston's move to secure a bigger slice for Western Australia's farmers, and said that Hong Kong and China was important markets, and that maintaining "face-to-face" contact would benefit the state's exporters in the future.