Food processors urged to grasp Asian opportunity
Australia's food processors and manufacturers are being urged to use the new Food Plan's focus on Asia to grasp new opportunities and revitalise their businesses.
Professor Mike Gidley, from the University of Queensland, says the food sector should be regarded as Australia's natural manufacturing industry.
He says traditional processors, such as canneries, have trouble competing on a world level and a number have closed, so a new approach is needed.
"The trick is not to try to be competitive on cost. We need to establish opportunities where only Australian will do."
The Federal Government will spend $28.5 million on researching Asian food markets.
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One option, Professor Gidley suggests, is developing new industries to focus on value-adding the bulk commodities that Australia produces well, such as beef and grain.
"The fact that Australia can compete on global commodity markets, despite our relatively high costs, is a good indication of how efficient those production processes are and what quality of products they have.
"So in terms of food processing, there's always going to be opportunities to add more value to those commodity products on shore and so get more bang for our buck."
And to be competitive, he says, Australia also has to trade more on its reputation of producing quality and safe food.
"In that case, people are prepared to pay quite a bit," he said.
"The assurance of safety and quality through the supply chain is something that many of our cheaper competitors would really struggle to achieve."
Professor Gidley has been a member of the government's Food Processing Industry Strategy Group, which has been looking at ways to capitalise on our competitive edge in science, research, and advanced processing technologies.
This year a Food Industry Innovation Precinct has been launched to link businesses with identified opportunities and researchers and the new Food Plan proposes the government appoint a Food and Beverage Supplier Advocate to encourage business-to-business links between food suppliers and their customers and the Precinct participants.
Source: ABC News, 27 May 2013
