AUDIO: They come from Down Under to the Central Valley

TULARE
February 15, 2008 12:01am

The Rossiter family’s business has been making shoes and boots since 1910 in Australia but is gaining a foothold in the U.S. thanks in part to an aggressive marketing effort by the Australian government.

This week, for the third year in a row, the family firm’s U.S. arm was part of the Australian Pavilion at the World Ag Expo in Tulare.

“We’re looking to try to increase our export presence,” says Neville Hayward, who was staffing the booth of Rossiter’s Pty Ltd in the pavilion.

“We’re 100 percent Australia-made and that’s quite unusual in Australia now. A lot of products have been manufactured off-shore,” says Mr. Hayward. “We do everything in Australia.”

But stacks of uniquely designed boots took up only a portion of the Down Under tent. Mr. Hayward shared the space with 17 other Australian companies seeking U.S. dollars for their goods and services.

“The Australian government have been very supportive of companies exporting, including ourselves,” Mr. Hayward says. “It’s certainly a catalyst in us making the decision to attend these types of events.”

The Australian economy has been hammered by a decade-long drought that appears to have ended, making government support for exports more critical, says Australian Trade Commissioner Ian Smith, who is based in Chicago, Ill.

“This sort of show and the U.S. market gives our companies, our regional companies in particular, an opportunity to diversify and to export,” says Mr. Smith. “International business is about partnerships so the Australian government and Australian companies aren’t just about coming over here and flogging their products … we’re actually here to partner with U.S. companies.”

(Neville Hayward and Ian Smith talk about marketing to the U.S. in two CVBT Audio Interviews. Please click on the links below to listen or to download the MP3 audio files to your computer or iPod.)

“Our agribusinesses are already supplying the U.S. with a wide array of high quality products and services across a range of sectors,” says Mr. Smith, citing such areas as minimum tillage farming, water conservation and precision agriculture.