Vision needed for farming to be next mining boom
What needs to be done for food producers and processors to thrive and prosper? John Brady CEO of the country’s largest tomato processing company KAGOME Australia and speaker at the GAP National Economic Review 2013 shares his vision.
Numerous State and Federal Governments have expressed the desire to see Australia grow enough food domestically so that it is self-sufficient, as well as capable of delivering on the potential for being the “Food Bowl of Asia”.
Travelling around this great brown land, one could be forgiven for believing that this objective is well with reach, given our rich soil varieties, abundant irrigation and history of innovation in agriculture.
With the population of the globe (according to the UN) rushing towards 9.6 billion by 2050, of which 5.2 billion are projected to be living in Asia, this should be the advent of Australia’s next “lucky country” bonanza.
However, when one looks at the current trends, the opposite is true … with farmers walking off the land, food processors / manufacturers closing their plants or moving off-shore and imports of finished goods proliferating on our supermarket shelves.
So what’s wrong – what is it that we need to do in order to redress our failures and to ensure farming replaces mining as the next substantial and sustainable economic boom for Australia?
VISION … yes, simply VISION. It stems from our Federal leaders (and the 3 year election cycle). There may be a desire but not the capability to take a long-term view. To extend beyond the political horizon, take the nation into a new period of global leadership and create greatness with appropriately funded projects.
As food producers and processors, we do not want a hand-out (nor new tariff barriers, which make us uncompetitive), we want a leg-up. Support that will allow us onto a level playing field – with some of the advanced and rapidly developing markets of the world.
Specifically, we want …
- Greater access to competitively priced water for irrigation purposes
- NBNCo to include horticulture regions (e.g. Echuca) in its first phase roll-out
- V/Line run more direct passenger/freight trains into our horticulture regions
- Government to fund 50% of all R&D and new plant machinery CapEx
- Government to talk-up Horticulture and educate consumers on its benefits
Meeting these 5 needs will give Growers confidence to re-invest in their agri-businesses, expand cultivation hectares to achieve scale, and move into new Asian cuisine fruit / vegetables, thus delivering on the potential for being the “Food Bowl of Asia”.
John Brady is CEO of KAGOME Australia, country’s largest tomato processing company. Prior to joining the company in 2012, John had senior management roles in large fresh and processed food manufacturing businesses. Before coming to Australia in 2004, he had a wide variety of FMCG sales and marketing assignments with multinational companies, living in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. John is the strategic pathfinder, accountable for the company’s future direction. This includes creating the appropriate collaborative environment for team members to flourish. As KAGOME Australia is a vertically integrated business – he is first to promote the provenience of its products and the 100% Australian Grown nature of its offer. John has led the push towards business sustainability and the concept that team members are stewards of the land and accountable for total environmental impact. He lives and works in Echuca during the week, spending weekends with his family in Melbourne. John is a keen cyclist and enjoys participating in triathlons.
