Opportunities for Sri Lanka sea food exporters in Australia explored

The importance of Sri Lanka’s trade, tourism and investment with Australia and the need to enhance the bilateral trade and economic relations despite COVID-19 pandemic was stressed at a recent event.

Consul General Lakshman Hulugalle emphasized on trade promotion in his opening remarks at a webinar on “market enhancement for Sri Lankan Products and Services in Australia.”

The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Sydney together with the Export Development Board (EDB) organized the webinar.

More than 75 Sri Lankan companies participated at the webinar, which was moderated by Anoma Premathilake, director/market development of the Export Development Board

The objective of the webinar was to give an update on the Australian market trends for existing Sri Lankan exporters as well as new companies who are looking at expanding their products into the Australian Market as conventional promotional activities have ceased due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Consul Commercial Abdul Raheem spoke on the ongoing bilateral trade and made a presentation on the Australian market condition for Sri Lankan products as well as the opportunities to improve Sri Lanka’s exports to the Australian markets during COVID-19 challenges.

Mark Boulter, executive officer of the Seafood Importers Association of Australia (SIAA), spoke on the market trend in Australia for importation of seafood products and opportunities for Sri Lankan exporters as Australia is not only one of the largest seafood producer/exporter but also one of the leading importer of seafood products from a number of countries.

Other speakers in the panel included CEO of Bdynamic Ltd Jamitha Pathirana who spoke on the product sourcing, supply chains and logistics in Australia and CEO of Tresync Australia Imran Furkan who spoke on IT/BPM sector in the Australian market and the opportunities for Sri Lankan IT sector.

Sri Lankan participants at the webinar also posted a number of questions which were answered by panel members during Q & A session.