Hort Innovation and agricultural consulting firms Planfarm and RMCG have launched a new $6.1 million data initiative.
The five-year benchmarking program is expected to provide vegetable and onion growers with the ability to benchmark their business against national and regional benchmarking data.
Hort Innovation CEO Brett Fifield says the program will work with growers and industry to deliver a program that addressed the notion that ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’.
“This exciting initiative will build an unparalleled level of farm data to give growers more confidence to make changes and improvements within their operations,” he says.
“Providing aggregated national benchmarks will enhance the financial and business literacy of vegetable and onion growers across the country.”
AUSVEG CEO Michael Coote says the initiative will enhance the resilience of the vegetable industry by providing clear and effective measures of success.
“This program is going to help the vegetable industry focus on how they conduct their business” he says.
“Growers currently don’t have access to holistic data which gives them meaningful insights into how they are performing in comparison with others. This initiative will give growers a mechanism to evaluate their business’s performance compared to others based on their specific crop type and location.
“The data will also provide insights to the industry as a whole, so that we can identify areas to invest more heavily in to enhance our competitiveness and unlock a more prosperous future.
“Growers will have the tools to identify areas for improvement and enhance their competitiveness in the industry, unlocking the potential for a more prosperous future.”