Agribusiness, Food & Trade

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. 

Premium Western Australian food being featured by Department of Agriculture and Food staff
Food Industry Innovation Project Manager Kim Antonio (left), Western Australian Premium Food Centre Manager Phil May (centre) and Manjimup Research Station Manager Ian Guthridge.

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