DAFWA’s new Food Industry Innovation project
Regional food businesses operating on their own face a mammoth task competing against established international brands and identifying new markets, however that is all set to change with a project aimed at growing Western Australia’s premium food sector.
The Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) is delivering a new Food Industry Innovation project, with a $4.5 million investment through Royalties for Regions, to support agrifood businesses in capturing luxury domestic and international market opportunities.
Agribusiness expansion is one of the most promising sectors of the WA economy. This three-year investment aims to provide premium producers with opportunities to work together to become more competitive, innovative and profitable.
DAFWA intends to drive this through two new food centres where collaboration and innovation will help businesses better market their products, reduce costs, coordinate production and drive growth.
A Western Australian Premium Food Centre based in Manjimup will identify markets for premium food products from all corners of the state. The second, a Specialised Food Centre in Albany, is focusing on the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions assisting businesses in these areas to work together to reduce their costs and enhance their long-term viability.
This is the first edition of the Food Industry Innovation newsletter and we welcome your feedback at foodindustryinnovation@agric.wa.gov.au
Why WA needs the Food Industry Innovation project
Agribusiness expansion is one of the most promising sectors of the Western Australian economy and growth of the premium food sector could have large-scale impacts on the state's export value.
WA’s climate and high standard of food production give our state a unique opportunity to produce and export premium food products that are highly regarded.
With world food trade undergoing significant change and increasing demand from affluent Asian and Middle Eastern countries for safe, premium food products, there is very real opportunity for growth in WA’s agrifood sector.
However it has been identified that for many regional operators working alone, capturing these markets is difficult and opportunities are being missed.
The state government wants to support local agrifood businesses find new domestic and international markets and enhance their long-term viability through the Food Industry Innovation project.
The overall goal of the project, being delivered by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) is to identify opportunities and maximise benefits for WA by equipping the regional agrifood sector to become more competitive, innovative and profitable.
Due to the sheer size of the state, regional food operators can be constrained by limited business collaboration opportunities, a lack of market analysis resources and insufficient regional infrastructure.
This project has established two new food centres to address these constraints; the Western Australian Premium Food Centre and the Specialised Food Centre.
The Western Australian Premium Food Centre will be launched in Manjimup in early October, assisting WA businesses who are producing premium food products to capture identified domestic and international market opportunities. The project will assist businesses who are planning to upscale and co-ordinate production methods and enhance their promotional material. The Western Australian Premium Food Centre will consider opportunities for organic and low input producers and processers.
The Specialised Food Centre is based in Albany and focuses on a broad range of agrifood businesses operating across the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions. The aim is to determine the current and future potential of food production in the region and bring businesses together to collaborate and reduce costs by sharing knowledge, skills, technology and infrastructure.
The Food Industry Innovation project will work with a range of partners throughout WA to transform agrifood businesses and the regions into preferred suppliers of premium quality products.
Growth in the premium food sector will ultimately bring flow-on benefits to other businesses, tourism and employment in regional areas throughout the state.
WA’s agrifood products are valued at $20 billion at retail and export levels and WA’s food manufacturing industry comprises around 1 200 businesses.
The Food Industry Innovation project forms part of the state government’s priorities to double the value of agriculture by 2025.
For more information contact: Kim Antonio, Project Manager, Food Industry Innovation
Phone +61 (0)8 9368 3676, mobile +61 (0)400 614 328 or email foodindustryinnovation@agric.wa.gov.au
What is the Western Australian Premium Food Centre
As part of the Food Industry Innovation project, the main role of the Western Australian Premium Food Centre is to identify market opportunities for premium agrifood products from across the state.
The first order of business for the Western Australian Premium Food Centre, is to deliver an independent Premium Agrifood Market Opportunity report to identify where the markets are for premium Western Australian (WA) agrifood products.
Following this, the job will be to introduce WA producers and processors to those markets and promote collaboration to fill orders they couldn’t otherwise achieve on their own.
The report will also define exactly what will qualify as a “premium” product.
The Western Australian Premium Food Centre will be based out of the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia’s Manjimup Research Facility on the South West Highway, south of Manjimup. An existing building has been refurbished for the purposes of the Western Australian Premium Food Centre.
The Centre will be officially launched by WA’s Minister for Agriculture and Food, on October 7.
Western Australian Premium Food Centre manager Phil May said identifying where new market opportunities were was the first step towards growing the premium agrifood sector in WA.
“We will be the link for producers and processors to new markets,” he said. “Some of those markets will have a minimum order requirement and we want to assist where we can to collaborate with multiple producers and processors and help them meet those demands.
“We assist businesses in working together for their own longer term benefit.”
Mr May said part of the Premium Agrifood Market Opportunity report will provide useful feedback on brand awareness. The extent that each market can differentiate between product brands, regional brands, state brands and national branding will be useful.
“This report will be a meaningful investment in market intelligence and will assist small players who would not otherwise have the resources to dedicate to a report of this kind,” Mr May said.
“We are not looking at capturing only the biggest dollar value products. We seek to have a cross section of agrifood enterprise sizes, and a cross section of organic and conventional production systems represented in the initial market opportunities report. Additionally, we need to be able to identify what is going to make people buy premium WA agrifood products over similar products produced elsewhere.”
Mr May said there had already been considerable feedback to the project.
“Given the limited publicity to this point in time, the Western Australian Premium Food Centre has attracted strong interest,” he said. “Project Manager Kim Antonio has been fielding multiple enquiries, the response is generally favourable and there is an element of excitement associated with the project.”
For more information or to register your interest in the Western Australian Premium Food Centre phone +61 (0)8 9777 0162 or email Phil May at phil.may@agric.wa.gov.au
Specialised Food Centre – understanding the capability of the Great Southern Region
As part of the Food Industry Innovation project, the Specialised Food Centre based in Albany will focus on the large number of premium agrifood producers and processors already operating in the Great Southern and Wheatbelt regions. The ultimate aim is to identify value-adding opportunities for these existing businesses so they can work together to reduce costs and enhance their viability.
The first goal of the Specialised Food Centre is to undertake an audit of food production and processing in the Great Southern region – who is doing what, where, how much are they producing and what scope there is for growth.
To do this the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) developed a joint initiative with Regional Development Australia Great Southern Western Australia (RDA) to produce the ‘Mapping food production and processing in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia’ project.
Information is being compiled from existing reports and data sources and surveys of producers and processors across 11 local government areas.
It is a major first step for the Specialised Food Centre and information gathering commenced in June.
The list produced will cover a comprehensive number of stakeholders from regional food producers and processors right through to wholesale and retailers.
The results of this mapping project will give a clear and detailed understanding of the diversity and intensity of the current and future food production and processing capacity in the Great Southern region.
The Specialised Food Centre will then match capacity within the region with new and emerging market opportunities.
DAFWA Specialised Food Centre manager Nikki Poulish said ultimately mapping food production and processing will benefit the entire region.
“The information generated will be used to inform future investment, marketing opportunities and decision making which will translate to whole-of-region support by DAFWA, RDA and other relevant organisations,” she said.
RDA executive officer Simon Lyas said the mapping project will identify gaps in the region, ascertain future capacity and will be important for informing the development of regional strategies.
“We have identified agriculture as a huge growth opportunity for the Great Southern region. Pinpointing the range of agribusinesses in the area from cropping, horticulture, livestock and processors right through the value chain to wholesale, retail and other markets, will enable us to better understand the capability of the region,” he said.
A secondary aim of the centre is to use the data gathered from the survey to create a ‘live’ map and database that can be used to promote and support local foods for consumption and agritourism.
If you are interested in participating in the survey and are an agrifood business in the Great Southern region, please contact Nikki Poulish on +61 (0)8 9892 8415 or nikki.poulish@agric.wa.gov.au for further information.
Meet the team: Food Industry Innovation Project Manager Kim Antonio
Leading the charge for the new Food Industry Innovation project is Kim Antonio who has both public and private sector experience across a broad range of industries including regional development, mining and disaster recovery.
Born and bred in Western Australia (WA) on a wheat and sheep farm in Meckering, Kim has spent most of his life based in regional Australia and has a passion for helping regional areas develop their potential.
“We are incredibly fortunate to live in a wonderful part of the world, we are politically stable, affluent, full of opportunity; it is a desire of mine to make sure the future for Western Australia remains prosperous and positive. I have a belief that supporting the development of a robust diverse WA economy is critical to that goal,” he said.
Kim moved to Perth for school and university, completing a Bachelor of Science degree before starting work in regional WA.
In 2000 he was selected as one of WA’s most promising young rural leaders and joined a development program including an international study tour. The post flood recovery program in Moora, which Kim oversaw, was recognised in the Prime Minister Community Awards for 2000.
He has worked previously as a director of the Gascoyne Development Commission and helped develop the “Growing the North” initiative that grew to encompass the Ord expansion, Gascoyne Food bowl, West Kimberley La Grange project and the Pilbara mine dewatering project. He also has a strong background working with indigenous groups on successful projects in Northern Australia.
Kim joined the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) in 2003 as the Manager of Economic Development following a push for the department to take on a greater economic development focus.
All of this experience has contributed towards a broad knowledge of business and the WA agricultural industry. His experience working across the different regions of the state in both agriculture and regional development, combined with a strong ability to lead and motivate, positions Kim well to take on the challenge of the Food Industry Innovation project.
His goal is to create greater connections and support for regional operators and help businesses identify market opportunities that are currently being under-utilised to the benefit of WA.
“I believe we need to capture more value for the state from the foods we produce, rather than simply exporting the commodity. By supporting the development of premium food opportunities and the development of the food processing and value-adding sectors we can capture more value, create Western Australian jobs and make a greater contribution to the WA economy,” he said.
Finding International Markets
Identifying international markets has been one of the first major goals of the Food Industry Innovation project being delivered by DAFWA. Without knowing what Western Australia’s (WA’s) international market opportunities are for premium food products there is no potential for large-scale growth.
Therefore identifying these markets has been one of the first major goals of the Food Industry Innovation project, being delivered by the Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA).
One of DAFWA’s important investments in this domain has been to commission the Target Market Opportunities report through the $6 million Asian Market Success project. An investment funded by the state government’s Royalties for Regions program.
The report confirmed there are exciting, high growth, high value premium opportunities at the intersection between what Asian consumers want and what WA can produce. And the opportunities range from existing products targeted at new and emerging markets, to all new products.
The report analysed global trade flows of almost 680 food and beverage products from every country to 24 high potential Asian and Middle Eastern target markets. The trade deals were fed through a multi-stage screening process and combined with interviews with many of WA’s agrifood businesses.
All identified opportunities for WA share a common thread, they all have large and growing demand from emerging consumers across Asia and/or the Middle East.
According to the report, these opportunities have the potential to deliver an estimated $1.3 billion per year in incremental, new export revenue to WA in the next five to seven years.
The Target Market Opportunities report has already made a valuable contribution to the early stages of project planning for the Western Australian Premium Food Centre.
We encourage WA producers and processors to become familiar with this valuable resource. To find out more about the report, register online for a copy.