Australian Pavilion

Australian Pavilion is an initiative with the Australian Prime Minister's Supermarket to Asia Council to extend the market for Australian produce. It was established by Bemco Australia in National Trades Union Congress’s leading store at Bukit Timah Plaza in Singapore. It is located to pick up the junction between dry, chilled, frozen and fresh products, and includes a demonstration area for instore merchandising.

The exposure for Australian food products, often through demonstrations instore provides Australian exporters the ability to access customers instore. This strengths the market between Australia and Singapore and supports food service and processor connections, giving an opportunity to build consumer franchises of Australian products in Asia.

For some Australian companies, the platform will substantially remove risks in finding a market, a reliable customer, supporting freight and documentation services, and appropriate target customers”.

The "Australian Pavilion" carries about 2000 new Australian products, including fresh, frozen, dry goods and beverages, and will include promotional areas for cooking and displays. The products must be new to the NTUC FairPrice chain, but will be exposed and tested in-store without incurring listing or new line fees. Products that are well received in the market could then become part of FairPrices' normal purchasing program across its 95 stores.

New products will have exposure in the Pavilion for a period exceeding 4 months. During this time, we will expect the Australian suppliers to get behind their products, through promotion, education and instore demonstrations.

Mr Jim Kennedy, Executive Director of the Prime Ministers Supermarket To Asia Council, says that “Singapore has been chosen as the location of the store for the following reasons

• high per-capita income and interest in imported foods
• strong affiliations with Australia
• a relatively small market, which should not stretch the supply capacity of most Australian suppliers
• the relative absence of food import trade barriers (compared to other Asian markets) and the current negotiation of a Singapore/Australia Free Trade Agreement.
• Singaporeans already consume about $520 million of Australian food products each year. With an increasingly Westernised diet and strong interest in food health and safety, this figure has strong potential to rise”.

The NTUC FairPrice chain numbers some 95 supermarkets, with a total turnover of around A$1 billion. They account for about 55 percent of retail food sales within Singapore.

AS the business grows, it is hoped the concept of the Australia Pavilion store will be extended across the NTUC chain of stores.