Produce

Tasmania has become known internationally as Australia’s gourmet isle. It has a reputation for producing high quality, gourmet food and beverages, including award-winning cool climate wines and is a leading producer for niche international markets.

Export Boom

Overseas food and beverage sales into established markets earn Tasmania more than $440 million a year. At the same time its rich and varied marine resources and a sophisticated aquaculture industry provide world and national markets with premium products that include rock lobster, farmed Atlantic salmon, ocean trout, Pacific oysters, wild and farmed abalone and scallops. Tasmania’s booming abalone industry supplies more than a quarter of the world’s fresh abalone market and is worth more than $100 million a year.

The Tasmanian Difference

Tasmania’s food industry benefits from a number of competitive advantages including:

• An international reputation for quality, with many products commanding premium prices;
• A temperate climate, clean air, rich soils, reliable rain and clean oceans;
• Easy access to Australian and niche export markets, particularly in Asia;
• Ability to supply out-of-season fresh produce including fruit, vegetables and flowers to northern hemisphere markets; and
• Island isolation, resulting in an absence of major pests and diseases.

Feeding the World

The island is a producer of speciality cheeses and dairy products, mouth-watering seafood, beef, distinctive leatherwood honey, plain and flavoured mineral waters, bottled spring water, handmade chocolates and truffles, fresh berry fruits, apples and crisp vegetables. Exotic fare includes emu steaks, strong-flavoured mutton birds, saffron, wakame seaweed and the recent start to commercial production of wasabi, known as Japanese horseradish. A range of speciality field crops have been successfully commercialised in Tasmania, including buckwheat sold to Japan for production of soba noodles.