Trade Minister Mark Vaile said Australian producers would benefit from the first permanent Australian-themed supermarket pavilion to be established offshore.

Welcoming the official opening of the Australia Pavilion at the NTUC Fairprice Bukit Timah Plaza supermarket in Singapore today, Minister Vaile said Australia had much to gain from the 3,600 square metres of retail space devoted to Australian produce.

"The Australian Pavilion is first and foremost a commercial enterprise for all concerned but it will also undoubtedly be a significant promotion platform for Australia," Mr Vaile said.

"This will give us a permanent, more substantial product-promotion base in Singapore than ever before and provide an ideal overseas 'test market' for new Australian products.

"It will offer Australian suppliers cheaper, fast-tracked entry into the Singapore market through an agreed waiving of listing and entry fees with Fairprice, and perhaps most significantly it will in time become an Australian 'icon' in Singapore for us to advance our image more broadly."

Mr Vaile said Australian expatriates and Singaporean consumers would also benefit from the variety and quality of products the facility would have to offer.

NTUC Fairprice is Singapore's largest supermarket food retailer with 78 stores across the country and annual turnover of approximately $1 billion.

"The company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Prime Minister's Supermarket to Asia Council (STA) to establish the Pavilion and appointed Victorian-based Bemco to act as a consolidator to stock the Pavilion.  To date more than $400,000 worth of produce has been sourced from Australia," Mr Vaile said.

"I congratulate all the partners involved in the project including NTUC Fairprice, STA, which has provide assistance in the design and construction of the Pavilion and in the training of staff, and the Australian Trade Commission's (Austrade) Singapore office.

"Much of the credit for the establishment of this Pavilion goes to NTUC Fairprice Chairman, Chandra Das who has been a strong supporter of Australia, increasing the volume of Australian imports stocked in Fairprice supermarkets by 400 per cent in the last four years," Mr Vaile said.