• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Rasheeda Bhagat

Mr Shabbir Wahid

MELBOURNE, May 7

THERE are immense opportunities for India to shore up its exports to Australia, but the profile of Indian exporters and the image of the quality of Indian goods need to be beefed up in the Australian market. This is the common refrain one hears from businessmen of Indian origin who have made Australia home.

In a chat with some businessmen belonging to the Australia-India Business Council (AIBC) in Sidney, one was related stories of how shoddily Indian exporters look at the Australian market. "We had a delegation of businessman from an apex business organisation at an international conference in Australia where everybody exchanged gifts. The Indians had rightly brought along gifts.. a beautiful replica of the Taj Mahal. But when we opened it, almost in every case, the minarets were all broken because of shoddy packing," said one businessman who did not want to be quoted.

Mr Shabbir Wahid, Special Projects Consultant to Asiaworld Shipping Services and based in Melbourne, is more forthright. An executive committee member of the AIBC, he was appointed by the Australian Government as the Consul General and Trade Commissioner in Mumbai from 1998 to 2002, a post that goes to the private sector.

He told a group of visiting Indian journalists that though a lot of Indian manufacturers were interested in trading with Australia, the market research they did before coming to the country with their goods, to participate in exhibition or other trade events, was pathetic. "Many of them have no clue of the Australian market and its needs. For instance a leather goods manufacturer had come to sell leather wallets at one such event. A number of my friends went to the exhibition to see the goods, but found that the size of the wallet was such that a 50 Australian dollar bill was sticking out of it by almost half. When you spend so much money to bring a couple of your representatives here, put them up in hotels, etc, should you not be doing the basic minimum research on the size of Australian currency notes?"

Also, Mr Wahid added, an average Australian carries about 7 to 8 cards, which might be credit cards, supermarket or other store cards, driving license, ATM cards and the like. "My daughter who is a student here carries a minimum of six cards in her wallet, which include her University ID, library card, credit cards and what have you. But the wallets on offer had no provision to take so many cards," he said.

Bilateral trade between India and Australia totals about A$ 1.8 billion a year, but it is heavily loaded in Australia's favour with the largest commodity being coking coal coming to India from Australia. "As long as the steel industry in India requires quality coking coal, Australia will enjoy a huge market in India," he said.

But India does have a huge opportunity in the area of soya bean meals, which Australia imports in huge quantities from the US and South America. "There is a market for 50,000 to 100,000 tons of this commodity, but India has not yet woken up to this huge opportunity," he added.

But on the other side of the divide, Australian companies are always striving for opportunities in India. One of the major areas the shipping industry in Australia is looking at is the opportunity to operate passenger ferry services in India, within different points in Mumbai, between Port Blair and the mainland, and in Kolkata and Vizag.

"The government of Maharashtra is keen to operate passenger ferry services in Mumbai, where the roads are packed, and a couple of shipping companies are in talks with the Government. We have identified Taiwan made catamarans, each with a capacity of carrying 300 to 400 passengers at a time and costing around A $ 25 million, which can be used for this purpose. Within the next 12 months, if all goes well, this service should be operational", he added.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication

Stories in this Section
UB pins hopes on 330-ml pints to boost sales

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line