Australia could potentially double the production of the people it feeds directly and indirectly from almost 500 million to nearly a billion people with the resources the country has, according to former Federal Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb.

This could be achieved by employing the right technology and development of northern Australia, which consisted of about 17 million hectares of arable country (about the size of Cambodia), and currently supported just one beast to 10 acres (4.04 hectares), he said.

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Australia’s share of Asian agricultural imports has declined rapidly in recent years as other nations have expanded their exports into the region, according to Mick Keogh, the newly appointed ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) Agriculture Commissioner.

He told an Australian Agriculture Outlook conference in Sydney in late May that Australia’s market share of 6 per cent for north Asian agricultural imports and 9 per cent for ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) were falling quickly.

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