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WA could double food value by 2025, Delane

According to Rob Delane, director general of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture and Food, the value of the state’s agri-food economy could double by 2025.

Delane was one of the guest speakers at the Mid-West Economic and Resources Summit where he spoke about what he sees as a bright future for the Western Australian agricultural sector despite current low farm commodity prices, ABC News reports.

"There are more opportunities than I've seen in agriculture in my 35-year career, but they will not be delivered on a plate from Asia," he said.

"If we are to be a premium food bowl for Asia and capturing the business benefits, then there has got to be a lot of people working together to capture that opportunity.”

Delane said that a focus on premium products sold at premium prices will be key to driving the WA agrifood economy.

"The demand will help improve the price in the longer run,” he said.

"We can improve the efficiency of supply chains and there are small and large businesses in the Mid-West that are strongly focussed on that."

Delane’s comments echo those of Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce earlier in the year.

In August, Joyce said that it was ‘ridiculous’ to think that Australia could feed the estimated three billion South East Asian middle class consumers by 2030, and that the 'food bowl' concept was read as a threat overseas.

“Indonesian farmers don’t want to hear that the only cattle that will be available for market will be Australian cattle,” said Joyce.

Joyce said that Australia should focus on marketing it agricultural outputs as premium products and that he is currently studying the successful NZ 100% Prue brand campaign, and has been in discussions with senior ministers about developing a similar style of strategy for Australian produce.

“If we all go off as rats and mice, here, there and everywhere, then we won’t have a consistent approach,” he said.

 

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