WHY IMPORTANT TO WISCONSIN: Wisconsin exporters that offer food products or food service equipment could play a role in the expansion.
Australia’s food service industry is vibrant and growing.
As of July 2023, Australia had 79,827 food service establishments, according to a report by the Australian Foodservice Advocacy Body (AFAB). More than 1.8 million people were employed by a food-related business, including producers, manufacturers, hospitality, and retail operations.
Total size of the food service market in Australia was $57 billion AUD ($38 billion USD) at the consumer level and $18.9 billion AUD ($12.6 billion USD) at the wholesale level, or about 3.2% of the global market, the report said.
Australians love to eat out—in fact, 78% say they have a meal in some kind of eating establishment on a regular basis. Each year, they drink 35 million cups of coffee and 18 million cups of tea outside the home. The average outlet serves 300 meals a day; that amounts to 8 billion meals served every day.
In spite of rising inflation, the food service market is expected to keep growing because of an increase in disposable income and because of the social nature of eating out. “Australians’ desire to eat out is among the highest in the Western world. Breakfast is eaten out more than in any other Western country,” the AFAB report said.
Consumers are controlling their spending by eating at less expensive establishments and by avoiding premium-priced products, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN).
The U.S. is the second-largest provider of food-related imports to Australia—behind only New Zealand—providing $1.3 billion worth on an annual basis, or 10% of all such imports, the GAIN report said.
Key areas of interest in the Australian market include food service equipment—ranging from kitchen tools and appliances to solutions for producing, transporting, storing, and serving food—and wholesale food and beverage products.
Potential opportunities include plant-based meat, whose sales of $272.5 million in 2023 were nearly double the level of 2020, according to Food Frontier, an independent think tank. Demand for international foods is also growing in Australia, and U.S.-based fast-food chains are popping up throughout the country.
Wisconsin companies wishing to export food products or food service equipment could find a favorable reception in Australia.
