18 August 2014 Voices for Australian agribusiness The head of one of Australia’s largest horticultural companies has called for political action to secure a viable future for the country’s agribusinesses. Mr John Brady, Chief Executive Officer of KAGOME Australia, the country’s largest tomato processor based in Echuca, in regional Victoria, will address the Future Proofing Mixed Farming Systems forum from 11.30 am on Friday 22 August. The forum is being hosted by the Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga. Mr Brady will outline his views on the main challenges to ensure the continued growth of Australia’s agribusiness: water, energy and logistics. “We have a great opportunity in Australia to better integrate traditional mixed farming with high value fruit and vegetable production at both farm and regional levels, and in ways that each sector complements the other”, Mr Brady said. “This will provide better opportunities for agribusiness to maximise returns to land resources, water resources, and business capital. It will involve improved integration of rain‐fed agriculture with irrigated farming at the enterprise level, and seamlessly link commodity production with value‐
adding.” “Reliable access to irrigation water is the number one challenge to ensuring a competitive agribusiness sector,” Mr Brady said. “And farmers must be able to better manage water that falls on their property without artificial penalties. Only in this way can agribusinesses establish stable value‐
chains and forward write contracts for high‐value products with reliable buyers.” “KAGOME Australia has 100 per cent of its tomato crop irrigated by sub‐surface drip tape and we use 13,000 mega‐litres of water annually. Our production is around 100 metric tonnes of tomatoes per hectare, and this is at world’s best practice, for both production and water‐use efficiencies. But difficulties still remain for our company in accessing and managing water.” “Energy, especially Natural Gas is the second challenge to ensuring a competitive agribusiness sector. Natural Gas represents our highest production input cost, aside from raw material, but we are seeing a three‐fold price increase per gigajoule in Australia. However our major global competitors (in California) are still paying the same price that they paid some years ago. Mr Brady said, “Logistics is the third challenge to ensuring a competitive agribusiness sector. All finished goods from the KAGOME Australia processing plant in Echuca are shipped by road freight. No alternative freight systems are available. In 2015 this will total 2,500 Container equivalents, of which 35 per cent are destined to one location – Melbourne port for export overseas.” “Processing tomatoes, carrots and beetroot grown in northern Victoria and southern NSW, has to take place close to the source. KAGOME spends $24 million in the local community each year (not including staff salaries) buying products and services from companies in Echuca Moama.” “I’m looking to our elected leaders (both state and federal) to address these three issues, which are common across all agribusinesses. Hopefully the forthcoming Agriculture Competitiveness White Paper will deliver such an opportunity.” The Graham Centre is a collaborative research collaboration of CSU and the NSW Department of Primary Industries. Further details: Mr John Brady, KAGOME Australia CEO, will address the Graham Centre’s Future Proofing Mixed Farming Systems Forum under the theme ‘Beyond the farm gate’ from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm on Friday 22 August at the Convention Centre at CSU in Wagga Wagga. The Forum, which includes tours of eastern and western Riverina industries on Thursday 21 August, will hear from industry leaders under three themes: ‘Creating a resilient mixed farming system’; ‘To value add or not to value add – that is the question’; and ‘Beyond the farm gate’. For further information on the Forum, including to download the full program, go here: http://www.csu.edu.au/research/grahamcentre/news/Future‐Proofing‐Mixed‐Farming‐Systems.htm He is available for media interviews. Photos will be available from Friday 22 August. Please contact Ms Toni Nugent, Industry Partnerships and Communications Manager, Graham Centre on telephone (02) 6933 4402 or mobile 0418 974 775. ‐ends‐ Forum sponsors: