When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) stepped on to the airport tarmac in Australia’s smallest state, Tasmania, he was presented with a purple fluffy toy called Bobbie.
The welcome gift he received, stuffed with lavender and wheat, was not in the shape of the southern island’s iconic Tasmanian devil, but instead of a teddy bear that has captured the hearts and wallets of Chinese consumers.
Bobbie has been an overwhelming success in China with a remarkable following — the bear’s success has helped creator Robert Ravens, the owner of a lavender farm in northeast Tasmania, secure an inaugural Australia-China business award for entrepreneurship.
Photo: AFP
Tasmania has long had Australia’s weakest economy, but it is hoping to boost its fortunes by using its natural resources to attract an affluent Asian market looking for quality products.
When Ravens bought the Bridestowe Lavender Estate in 2007, his first goal was to return it to the peak farming condition it was in several decades ago.
He was also keen to boost the tourism potential of the almost 100-year-old farm, which uses a lavender descendent of a crop specially harvested from the French Alps in 1919 and brought to Tasmania in 1921 by an English family.
“We looked to create new products which would attract young visitors, and that came through food,” Ravens said.
An early product, lavender ice cream, started to attract Chinese tourists to the 105 hectare farm, which is an hour’s drive from Tasmania’s second-largest city, Launceston.
However, it was through the bear that Ravens, a former chief executive of a leading chemicals firm, struck a winning formula.
“We were experimenting with various shapes and colors. One day, five years ago or more, we showed a bear to a young Chinese girl in a shop,” Ravens told reporters, as his staff filled the plush toys with dried lavender before hand-stitching them shut.
“She said ‘so cute’ and she was carrying it like a baby, and you could see the bond form between the buyer and the bear. As soon as we saw that, the light went on and we knew that was the right configuration,” he said.
Even the name was designed to attract Chinese consumers, Ravens said.
“You can say Bobbie phonetically in Cantonese and Mandarin,” Ravens said.
Ravens courted the celebrity market and when a Chinese model posted a picture of herself with the bear online last year, demand for the furry creature — which doubles as a heat pack — reached stratospheric levels.
The farm had to limit sales to one per customer, temporarily halt online shopping and even contend with fake toys piggy-backing on Bobbie’s fame.
Kathy Lam, a Hong Konger who was visiting the farm, said she liked the bear because it also had a medical function, with the heat used to relieve pain.
“I wanted to see the farm as it makes me feel that the lavender is very natural,” she said. “The feeling is very different from a supermarket.”
Visitor numbers to the farm have soared from 23,000 in 2007 to more than 65,000 last year, and it now produces 40,000 bears annually.
“In Australia, you become successful and you have 26 million potential customers. In China, you have a billion. The scale is so phenomenal,” Ravens said.
“I think the answer is to be authentic and to target the market as acutely as you can. We are aiming always to be a boutique market, not a mass market,” he said.
Catering to the demands of the rising Asian middle class is key for a state economy left behind during the unprecedented mining investment boom on the Australian mainland that helped Australia avoid recession for more than two decades.
Tasmania was hurt by the boom’s side effects, such as the strong local currency, which squeezed the agriculture, tourism and manufacturing industries.
However, what it does have is an abundance of natural resources, such as fresh water, fertile soil and stunning landscapes.
And the fact that Tasmania is counter-seasonal to the northern hemisphere allows it to cater to demand for crops such as tulips and onions.
As such, Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Saul Eslake said niche industries — including gourmet wine, wool, wagyu beef and aquaculture — were where the growth opportunities lay, and where high costs are covered by higher premium prices.
Tasmania has already been working to boost the hospitality industry as China becomes its No. 1 source of tourists, with 20,400 visiting in the year to June.
The state government has sponsored a “China Ready” guide for tourism operators that suggests offering slippers, cup noodles and fancy condoms to guests, with the lure of Bobbie the bear an added bonus.
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