Assessing global demand for perishable commodities of northern Australia: A case study of Central Queensland

This study have investigated the factors which may affect (positively or negatively) exporting HVPACs in Asian countries from CQ. In light of theoretical domain of the factors have been categorized as centripetal (positive/pull) and centrifugal (negative/push) forces. Availability of skilled and unskilled labour forces in the agricultural sector of CQ is one of the centripetal forces which could help the HVPACs to grow to satisfy the international market demand. CQ has the setup of backward and forward linkage industries to promote exporting HVPACs. One of the major advantages of CQ is its location and proximity to the Asian markets which offer a competitive transportation cost to export HVPACs in Asian markets. There are few obstacles as well to promote HVPACs of CQ which could act as centrifugal forces on local economic dynamics. CQ has three regional airports but none of them has the infrastructure or logistics to operate international cargo flight. As a result the local producer have to ship their product to Brisbane for exporting which is time consuming and attract additional costs. In view of stakeholders, CQ needs to improve its irrigation facilities to increase the production of HVPACs. One of the barriers on exporting HVPACs is the labour cost which is comparatively higher than other competitor exporting countries. This study reveal that, in spite of some barrier CQ region has a great potential on exporting HVPACs in Asian markets.