Talk: Australian agribusiness: challenges & technological innovation

As a powerhouse driving economic growth, agribusiness is one of Australia’s fastest growing sectors and one of the largest employers in rural and regional Australia.  With farm production worth around $60 billion in 2016-17 to the economy, the sector earns around $45 billion in export revenue, according to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).

In addition, AgTech continues to provide opportunities to reshape the agricultural economy by providing real time information and improving procurement, transport, manufacturing and quality.  Furthermore, technology within the sector importantly provides the basis for improved transparency and food chain assurance.

Australia boasts exciting innovations in agriculture and the food sector.  These sectors deliver products and tools that will assist in adapting to the trials of a warming climate and an increasingly contentious international trade outlook.  It also meets the changing dietary preferences of a growing population, and help make food production more sustainable and productive.

With agribusiness already a vital contributor to each state’s economy, the ABCC aims to ask the questions: where within Australian agribusiness do the greatest growth opportunities now lie, how can Australia best harness technological innovation and what are the challenges the sector faces?