Chinese food group Bright Food targets wine operations in NSW

The NSW Government has signed an agreement with Chinese food group Bright Food.
The state-owned company based in Shanghai is already discussing the purchase of CSR's sugar business.

It will now target sugar, dairy and wine operations in NSW with a Memorandum of Understanding to explore opportunities for Bright Food to invest in these industries.
The NSW north coast sugar industry is so far untouched by foreign investment.
But a need by the NSW Sugar Milling Co-operative to restructure has meant the need to look abroad for investors.

The co-op's chief executive Chris Connors says the agreement could be good news for the industry.

"Our business plan keeps saying to us that we've got to come up with some alternative income streams," he says.

"You can only do that by having investment, you can't do it by debt. At the end of the day, it just doesn't work.

"So if there's opportunities created by this arrangement, then yes, it's a positive."
China is NSW's largest trading partner with bilateral merchandise trade worth almost $20.5 billion in 2008-09.