Our annual bilateral meetings with Thailand on agricultural trade and cooperation were successfully held in Thailand on 5-7 September. Mr Matthew Koval, First Assistant Secretary of DAFF's Trade and International Division co-chaired the 19th Meeting of the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) Expert Group on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Food Standards (SPS meeting), with the Secretary General of Thailand's National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards.
Mr Koval also co-chaired the 23rd meeting of the Thailand-Australia Joint Working Group on Agriculture with the Deputy Permanent Secretary of Thailand's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
Our annual meetings with senior Thai agriculture officials contribute to our strong and collaborative working relationship, with two-way agricultural trade with Thailand worth $4.1 billion in 2022-23.
Australian exports of agriculture, fisheries and forestry goods grew to $2.5 billion in 2022-23 increasing by 69% year on year.
This year's meeting provided an opportunity to discuss Australia's key agricultural market access priorities with Thailand, following the recent opening of trade in Western Australian Hass avocados to Thailand, as well as mutual interests in building sustainable agriculture sectors.
The first shipment of Western Australian Hass avocados landed in Thailand early September and since then about 23 tonnes of Hass avocados, or around 4000 trays, have been exported to Thailand.
Ahead of the meetings, Thailand hosted a celebratory event to showcase Australian avocados as well as Thai cooked duck meat, of which trade recently commenced in June 2023.
