Australia as the Supermarket to Asia? Governments, Territory, and Political Economy in the Australian Agri-Food System.

The changing role of the nation state in agri-food systems is illustrated through a case study of the Supermarket to Asia, a recent policy initiative of the Australian government. The Supermarket to Asia provides a policy discourse that fills gaps created through policies of deregulation and self-reliance. It involves the creation of bureaucratic mechanics that straddle the public-private interface and gives explicit attention to small and medium-sized enterprises. In these ways, the state constructs a new set of relations, alliances and allegiances with agri-food capital. The durability of these arrangements depends on the extent to which these policy arrangements are perceived to be consistent with the new realities of global agri-food trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]