FIAL Main - Technical Insights by FIAL

LATEST key facts about the food and agribusiness sector

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 20:43:40 +1100

We are pleased to share the latest Australian food and agribusiness sector data, includes key statistics including value added, employment, number of businesses and number of exports. These results brings Australia's food and agribusiness sector one step closer to realising its $200 billion potential by 2030.

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Global Food Security Summit ... thoughts from our MD

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 14:33:34 +1100

On 26^th November in Abu Dhabi, the Global Food Security Summit, “Together, for Humanity,” was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Representatives from developing countries, women and youth including experts from across the world came together to discuss how we combat world hunger by focusing on biosecurity and agriculture in arid environments.

Australia is among the most food secure nations in the world. Currently we rank 22^nd on the Global Food Security Index (GFSI) in 2022, alongside countries like Germany and UAE. Our diversified production system, mature supply chains and high-income (rank 12^th in the world for per capita income), gives many Australians reasonable access to food. Despite Australia exporting more than 70% of what we grow or produce, according to the Foodbank Hunger Report 2024, 32% of Australian households or an estimated 3.4 million households experienced severe or moderate food insecurity in 2024. This alarming statistic shows we can not be complacent about food security. Food resilience planning is needed to better support our food system to unprecedented shocks like floods or bushfires.

At the summit, global collaboration and innovation were highlighted as critical enablers to creating more sustainable solutions for food security. A vehicle to unlock these solutions at the national, regional, and local levels was through clusters. Building clusters of a critical mass of industry, researchers and government around these burning platforms, or challenges that cannot be resolved in isolation, is the way forward. The place-based clusters create the economies of scale around the capabilities and capacity needed for transformative change, and how we close the gap from our current 13,300 trillion calories consumed globally to the 20,500 trillion calories required by 2050. Read more about how Australia food and agribusiness clusters are helping Australia remain a food secure country.

Visit their website: https://www.gfss.ae/

MEDIA RELEASE: Dairy farmers and veterinarians to benefit from new research on antibiotic resistance

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 11:32:29 +1000

Dairy Australia and Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) are joining forces with leading Australian researchers to support dairy veterinarians and farmers to monitor and benchmark their animal health, antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance.

The study, undertaken by world-class researchers from universities in three states, will cover all eight dairy regions across Australia and aims to understand the current animal health status and antibiotic use on Australian dairy farms and identify key strategies to addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

Pilot farmers will receive reports on key animal health indicators such as clinical mastitis and calf health, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory use. Dairy veterinarians, farmers and post-graduate students can also nominate to be part of this groundbreaking research.

Dairy Australia National Lead – Animal Health and Welfare Dr Stephanie Bullen says that effective antibiotics are a critical tool for dairy farmers to maintain the health and welfare of their animals.

“AMR develops when infections no longer respond to antibiotics used to treat them. AMR can occur due to overuse of antibiotics, incorrect use of antibiotics or when one type of resistant bacteria transfers their resistance genes to another type.”

“All users of antibiotics – medical professionals, patients, veterinarians and farmers – have a responsibility to use antibiotics well. The Australian dairy industry has committed to stewardship of antibiotics, using as little as possible and only as often as necessary, and this is reflected in the Australian Dairy Sustainability Framework.”

FIAL Managing Director Dr Mirjana Prica says that this study is important to the future of dairy in Australia’s food system.

“Global protein consumption has risen 40 per cent since 2,000 and the demand for traditional proteins like dairy is expected to remain strong in Australia.”

“From our comprehensive Capturing the Prize report launched in October 2020, we know that growing demand for traditional proteins – such as dairy, meat and eggs – could present an additional opportunity worth A$31 billion.”

“Investing in this project is important with the rise of consumer interest in the origins of their food and the industry’s need to increase supply chain transparency, food safety testing and biological hazard control.”

This project will combine on-farm data from herd management software with a farm’s veterinary medicine purchase data from practice management software to generate farm reports. The research will be underpinned by robust social science to ensure reports meet farmer and veterinarian needs.

Additionally, Dairy Australia and FIAL are funding the first specific survey on AMR in dairy cattle to understand the current levels of antimicrobial resistance to important bacteria on participants’ farms.

Any organisations that are interested in partnering in this research should get in contact with Dr Stephanie Bullen of Dairy Australia at stephanie.bullen@dairyaustralia.com.au.

ENDS

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Media enquiries

Tanya Wilkins
Marketing Manager

FIAL

Email: marketing@fial.com.au

About Dairy Australia

Dairy Australia is the national services body for the Australian dairy industry. Our projects, research and investments support the profitability and sustainability of dairy farming. For more information on Dairy Australia, visit dairyaustralia.com.au

About FIAL

FIAL started out as the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre established by the Australian Government. Now, as an industry-led not-for-profit, we are still the trusted partner for the food and agribusiness sectors, more than a decade on. We provide ecosystem leadership to support the Australian food and agribusiness sector's productivity, growth, and competitiveness.

Following five years of research, FIAL released the Capturing the Prize report which quantified the sector’s potential of $200B of value-addition and the creation of an additional 300,000 jobs by 2030: https://www.fial.com.au/sharing-knowledge/capturing-the-prize

MEDIA RELEASE: Our food manufacturers feeding the way

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:51:51 +1000

Today, Australia’s food and agribusiness sector produces enough food to feed 4-5 times our population. The sector plays a crucial role in turning our comparative advantage of growing agricultural produce into competitive Australian-made food and beverages to feed the projected 10 billion people by 2050.

With FIAL’s help, the sector grew almost 80% between 2015 and 2023, contributing 4.2% to Australia’s gross domestic product. Food and beverage manufacturing continues to remain our largest manufacturing sector at 52.5% of total manufacturing Gross Value Added, accounting for 65.4% of all jobs.

These results and more are part of FIAL’s Final Impact Report, which was released today. The 8-year Industry Growth Centre was funded under the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science and Resources to foster cultural change in the sector and create jobs by overcoming barriers to productivity and competitiveness, where economic growth can be maximised.

FIAL’s Chair, Professor Roy Green notes that FIAL received $45.96M of funding over 8-years and almost one-third was invested in co-matched innovation projects.

“This was not just a government handout. In fact, over 167 businesses, mostly SMEs, contributed $17.55M of their own funds to commercialising new food and beverage products. Of the 555 new products commercialised, 28 were first-to-the-world innovations.

“An ACIL Allen analysis found these businesses contributed $231.7M to the Australian economy, with over $180M of capital investments to grow future food production.

“This work estimates that employment generated from our innovation grants was 1481 FTE jobs in 2021-2022 alone.”

FIAL’s Managing Director, Dr Mirjana Prica said that for every dollar of Commonwealth funds invested in innovation activities, there was a return on investment of 14.9 of direct and indirect benefits.

“With high demand for what we grow and produce, FIAL also helped over 500 export-ready businesses by connecting them to 8 international markets contributing to total export sector growth of 61.3% from 2015-23.

“We led 18 Australian stands at major international trade shows across these markets, with 70% of the Australian businesses who joined us exporting for the first time.

“We built a network of over 8,000 stakeholders and 12 regional clusters that used our 6 Sector Competitiveness Plans, 75 papers and technical insights, 420 case studies, and 7 innovation books to guide their path forward for value-adding to what we grow or produce.

“Our leadership in developing a roadmap to halve Australia’s food waste by 2030 identified the hotspots for waste and environmental impacts that are helping governments and the private sector support net zero emission targets.

“FIAL’s focus on micro and SMEs is essential to our economy as they are innovative, agile, nimble, and niche market focused, and the engine machines of the food and agribusiness sector.

“I am incredibly proud of FIAL’s achievements and honoured to have led a small team that has established the foundations for future business growth.”

Professor Green said it has been a privilege to Chair FIAL as the organisation transitioned from an Industry Growth Centre (with Commonwealth funding ending) to an independent, industry-led, and not-for-profit that will continue to support the growth of the sector.

“I know there are exciting times ahead for FIAL and Australia’s food and agribusiness sector.”

END

The Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre, trading as Food Innovation Australia Ltd (FIAL), uncovered the barriers to achieving its full potential. Since 2015, FIAL has provided ecosystem leadership to support the Australian food and agribusiness sector's productivity, growth, and competitiveness. FIAL focused on four priority areas to ensure the growth and sustainability of the sector, including:

- Food security and sustainability

- Enhanced production and value addition

- A global marketplace

- The future consumer

The final impact report is available here >

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2024 key facts about the food and agribusiness sector

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 13:05:45 +1100

** These are not the latest numbers - visit our post on 31/03/2025.
This snapshot of the latest Australian food and agribusiness sector data, includes key statistics including value added, employment, number of businesses and number of exports. These results brings Australia's food and agribusiness sector one step closer to realising its $200 billion potential by 2030.

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WE ARE CONTINUING

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 08:02:29 +1100

FIAL grows from a federally funded Food and Agribusiness Industry Growth Centre to an independent, industry-led, not-for-profit organisation. Australian agrifood businesses will continue to benefit from the decade of knowledge and experience built by the FIAL team.

FIAL’s outgoing Chair, Professor Roy Green, said, ‘I am delighted that FIAL will continue its role as industry ‘leader’ to realise our vision of one sector, one value chain, and one food system.

“It’s about agriculture and food manufacturing working together to deliver domestic and global market success.”

Over the past decade, FIAL has driven the cultural and business change needed in Australia’s food and agribusiness sector and helped overcome barriers to innovation, productivity, and growth.

FIAL’s Managing Director, Dr Mirjana Prica, said, ‘FIAL has become the sector’s trusted partner. Building that trust is too valuable to lose, so we will introduce a new range of services in the coming months. We will build on our strengths around supporting market activities whilst attracting investment for the right business strategy and innovation.

“Not surprisingly, we want to share some of our key successes during this time. We were provided with $45.96M of Australian taxpayer funds to drive this change, and indeed we did with sector growth of almost 80%, and a contribution to Gross Value Add of $95.9B in 2023.

“Analysis by ACIL Allen concluded that our work, including innovation grants to turn great ideas into products and services, delivered a $231.7M contribution to Australian GDP and created 1481 full-time equivalent jobs in 2021-2022.

“For every dollar of Commonwealth funds invested in innovation and related activities, there was a return on investment of 14.9 of direct and indirect benefits.

“Extraordinary! Which is why we are not stopping anytime soon.

“We look forward to continuing to deliver solutions that lead to tangible impact and make a real difference to businesses, the industry, sector and Australia.”

ENDS

About FIAL

Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) is the catalyst that encourages the food and agribusiness industry to work collaboratively to grow the share of Australian food in the global marketplace. FIAL supports the industry through targeted services including sharing knowledge, building capability and creating connections.

FIAL’s knowledge sharing, and capacity-building activities helped more than 9,000 businesses and other stakeholders improve their innovation and market readiness. Collaboration has been at the heart of these initiatives, with FIAL’s cluster program accelerating the growth of 12 regional clusters, targeting the 98% of sector businesses who are small to medium sized. Many of these businesses benefited from the on-line digital tools developed by FIAL such as FIAL's Australian Food & Beverage Catalogue, and Trade Barriers Register.

Accelerators and Incubators

Wed, 24 May 2023 14:38:01 +1000

Australia's Food and Agribusiness Accelerator and Incubator Industry

Australia's Incubator and Accelerator (I&A) industry is a crucial innovation and commercialisation partner for the Food and Agribusiness sector.

Entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity to capitalise on Australia's natural strengths and help increase Australia's capability and brand as a preferred and innovative provider of high quality and differentiated Food and Agribusiness products and services.

Accelerator and Incubator Review

Dr Barry McGookin, Manager of Innovation at Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL), undertook a top-level review to update the Australian Food and Agribusiness I&A landscape post COVID-19.

This review will assist FIAL and the wider industry to identify gaps or duplication within the sector. It will also provide insights into the types of programs required to address the identified gaps so business can more effectively and efficiently develop and commercialise their products, technologys or services.

Key Insights

Accelerators vs Incubators - What is the Difference?

Accelerators "accelerate” the growth of an existing company, meaning they are often more suitable for start-ups with a validated idea and are ready to launch, or existing businesses planning to scale.

Incubators “incubate” ideas and promote innovation and peer business interactions to build a disruptive business. They are often suitable for companies that are earlier in the innovation process (typically working towards a Minimum Viable Product).

Where to Now?

Insight	Call to Action
SMEs (often not considered start-ups) have limited options available to join physical incubator communities that understand and support them.	Broaden incubator and accelerator offerings to better accommodate SMEs with additional entrepreneur options or ‘side hustles’.
Although improving, Venture Capital investors generally lack an understanding of Food and Agribusiness models and require further education and awareness to increase their investor confidence levels. This creates a significant gap at Series A rounds and later follow-on investment rounds, meaning SME Scale-up funding is almost non-existent outside private investor funding	Increase understanding of the investor community about the Food and Agribusiness sector and types of entrepreneurs in the sector vs digital or technology sectors. Additional longer-term funding and scale-up support are provided via public, or semi-public investment options and organisations as very few Food and Agribusiness companies can be system disruptive, nor have the potential for exponential growth and very high margin returns – often considered hallmarks of a ‘start-up’. Broaden investor access to SMEs with ‘wider’ low capital investment networks seeking less elevated returns.
Accelerators and Incubators tend to be relatively fixed in their approaches and offerings.	Food and Agribusiness I&As offerings adjusted to better tailor to each of the “Growth” and “Fixed” entrepreneur mindsets.

Updated Sector Data

Wed, 10 May 2023 11:32:45 +1000

Key facts of Australia's Food & Agribusiness, and Food & Beverage Sector

This snapshot of the latest Australian Food and Agribusiness sector data, includes key statistics including value added, employment, number of businesses and number of exports.

With all the unprecedented events of the past year, it is encouraging to see industry gross value added rise by $26.2 billion to $95.9 billion in 2021-22. This brings Australia's Food and Agribusiness Sector one step closer to realising its $200 billion potential by 2030.

Change of Leadership for Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL)

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:19:17 +1000

Emeritus Professor Roy Green Appointed as Chair of FIAL

Dr Michele Allan, AO, has stepped down as Chair from the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre (trading as FIAL) to pursue other Board opportunities, after serving four years as Chair and three years as a Non-Executive Director on the Board.

During this time, Dr Allan has provided invaluable leadership in ensuring FIAL’s activities remained focused on catalysing the growth of the Australia’s Food and Agribusiness sector. One of her greatest legacies at FIAL is the inception and delivery of Project 2030 – the A$200 billion opportunity for the Australian food and agribusiness sector.

Dr Allan’s extensive knowledge of the sector, together with her commercial and innovation experience, has provided the system leadership to unlock the sector’s growth potential, whilst highlighting the critical linkages between agricultural inputs and food and beverage manufacturing. The continued support of the collaborative ecosystem of clusters during Dr Allan’s term is enabling hundreds of businesses to turn their bright ideas into a business reality to create jobs and value for the sector.

TCI Oceania Conference 2022

Thu, 26 May 2022 09:53:16 +1000

Clustering for Scalable Impact

The power of collaboration through Clusters was unleashed at the 2022 TCI Oceania Conference in Cairns - ‘Clustering for Scalable Impact’.

Every few years, the TCI Oceania Chapter hosts a conference to discuss the latest ideas on Clusters. This year the conference was run in beautiful, tropical Cairns. The theme for the 2022 conference was Clustering for Scalable Impact. The event provided the perfect platform to connect, share ideas and network face-to-face with stakeholders far and wide.

A total of 63 people attended nine sessions over the course of one and a half days, led by 10 international, forward-thinking keynote speakers including Merete Daniel Nielsen, Prof Madeline Smith, Dr Allan O’Connor, Dr Sam Bucolo, and Dr Emily Wise.

More than 10 Clusters from six sectors within Australia gained access to tools and expertise surrounding designing and operating a Cluster for sustainability and scale.

Discussions centred on the topics of collective leadership, Cluster impacts by design and how Clusters are building for sustainability and scale. Participants also dove into the notion of building trust, unlocking the power of collaboration and measuring the impact of collective leadership, all to amplify a Cluster's overall impact.

"The power of collaboration means people are open to conversation, people are building relationships and people are prepared to share. These three elements, alongside the journey of building trust, will strengthen and build momentum post-conference for Cluster's and their respective sectors," said Mirjana Prica, Managing Director of FIAL and Chair of TCI Oceania.

"This had to be the best thing I have done to date as chair. So many great connections were made, my brain is buzzing with extra ideas that I hadn't even thought of. We got to work on our cluster in today's workshop which was quite a beautiful exchange of energies, ideas and hard questions." - Irene Pollak from Circular Economy FNQ.

The connections generated at this conference are essential to collectively scale-up small-to-medium enterprises across all sectors, including Australia’s Food and Agribusiness sector. Event partner, FIAL, has been a key driver of Clusters within Australia's Food and Agribusiness sector. They have supported the establishment and growth of 12 Clusters nationally, including the Tropical North Queensland Regional Food Network based in Cairns.

Newfound learnings of Clusters and how they can foster collaboration, growth, trust and innovation will aid in this objective and resonate nation-wide across Australia’s Food and Agribusiness sector and all sectors.

About TCI Oceania Chapter: TCI Oceania is one of formal regional Chapters of the TCI Network, which is the leading global network of people and organizations working in clusters and innovation ecosystems around the world.

Clusters are geographically proximate groups of interconnected companies, including government, research and industry, allowing businesses to collectively create a local ecosystem to foster trust and knowledge, and drive innovation and growth.

Case study produced by FIAL Project Officer, Amber Keep