Keeping a greater share of food processing onshore and the better differentiating of Australian food products are major themes across CSIRO’s roadmap, which calls on businesses to act quickly or risk losing future revenue streams to the competitive global market.
Developed with widespread industry consultation and analysis, the roadmap seeks to assist Australian food and agribusinesses with the desire to pursue growth and new markets.
Deputy Director of CSIRO Agriculture and Food Dr Martin Cole says Australia is well positioned to act as a delicatessen of high-quality products that meet the needs of millions of informed and discerning customers both here and abroad.
“Australian businesses are among the most innovative in the world, and together with our world-class scientists, can deliver growth in the food and agribusiness sector amid unprecedented global change,” he said.
“This roadmap will set us on the path to sustainable growth in the sector.”
The CSIRO roadmap was developed in collaboration with the government-funded food and agribusiness growth centre Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL).
It outlines value-adding opportunities for Australian products in key growth areas, including health and wellbeing, premium convenience foods, and sustainability-driven products that reduce waste or use fewer resources.
Five key enablers for these opportunities are explored in the roadmap: traceability and provenance; food safety and biosecurity; market intelligence and access; collaboration and knowledge sharing; and skills.
These enablers align with FIAL’s knowledge-priority areas that are central in helping the food and agribusiness industry achieve its vision and deliver increased productivity, sustainable economic growth, job creation, and investment attraction for the sector.
The roadmap calls for improved collaboration and knowledge sharing to generate scale, efficiency and agility across rapidly changing value chains and markets.
“To survive and grow, the challenge facing Australia’s 177,000 businesses in the food and agribusiness sector is to identify new products, services and business models that arise from the emerging needs of tomorrow’s global customers,” Dr Cole said.
The roadmap was launched during the Australian Institute of Food Science and Technology’s (AIFST) 50th Anniversary Convention in Sydney.