Yes Bank on Wednesday inked an agreement with Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) to collaborate and explore trade opportunities in agri-business sector, including business development, syndicating, lending and trade financing in agri-business.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Nicola Watkinson, Minister Commercial and Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner (South Asia), Australian Trade Commission, and Nitin Puri, President (Food, Agri-business Strategic Advisory & Research), Yes Bank. As part of the agreement, Austrade and Yes Bank will jointly organise workshops across India to create awareness about Australian capabilities in the food and agri-business sectors and exchange information with Indian businesses looking at international expansion opportunities.
“This collaborative engagement with Yes Bank, is to leverage on our respective organisational strengths and contribute developing closer relationships between agri-food value chains of Australia and India,” Ms. Watkinson said.
She said share of agribusiness stands at about 60 per cent of Australia's total exports. Of this, nearly 50 per cent exports goes into Asia. “We recognise India’s push to achieve food and nutrition security for its growing population, in the face of resource constraints and depletion. Australia is an idea partner to work with India as Australia faces similar challenges,” she added.
Mr. Puri said there were banking opportunities in this sector. Dairy, animal husbandry and meat processing were areas of mutual co-operation and collaboration was needed in these sectors, both in terms of services and technology.
Under the MoU, Austraide and Yes Bank will share experiences from Australia which has similar climatic conditions and logistic challenges and has met these challenges to now export $30.5 billion (Australian) value of food each year and to some of the most demanding markets in the world like Japan and Europe.
They would also introduce Australian expertise and technologies to increase the productivity of key agricultural sectors such as grains, vegetables and dairy; explore collaborations and joint ventures in areas of food processing to add value to Indian agricultural produce; exchange information on new consumer trends around the world that can offer new export opportunities for Indian and Australian agricultural companies.
