2. 2
FOOD AGILITY CRC
There is a national consensus that Australia
has an enormous opportunity as a food
producer. Much has been written on this.
The issue is not if Australia should pursue
this but how. How we should:
• Make sure we get the best value from our
food production for our community?
• Harness our reputation for safe and
sustainable food while still reducing red
tape?
• Increase production when we have
unprecedented input constraints and we
are losing arable land to climate change
and urbanisation?
The starting point must be a market-led
strategy. And the market is on Australia’s side.
Half of the world’s population lives just to our
north.
World population will grow to 9.6 billion by
2050 driving food demand. Income growth
in key markets will be much more important
than pure numbers. As incomes rise in
emerging economies, so too does kilojoule
intake and, more importantly, a switch to
protein takes place.
Simply put the world is on the cusp of a
huge leap in demand for higher-value food
products.
But it is not just any kind of food. Consumers
in our markets are showing increasing
interest in where food is produced, and in the
freshness, safety and quality of food. They
want to know where their food comes from,
and they want to get the best value.
Consumers are more digitally connected
than ever. China alone represents $1 trillion,
or 43 per cent of total global food growth by
2050. Concerns about food safety, pollution
and product provenance are widespread in
China - a market where social media influence
on consumer choices is growing. The rise of
social media is empowering consumers.
We are also seeing rapid growth of home
vegetable gardening and farmers’ markets;
but also in the emerging interest in the
property development industry in urban
farming such as vertical and rooftop gardens
in residential and commercial spaces.
The food growth story is attracting new
money and disruptive innovators into the
industry.
3. In a world where everything is digitally
connected, data is a critical asset. Food is no
different.
Faster and quicker insights from real-time
data help us to more nimbly respond to what
the market wants, be more efficient in how we
produce it and get it to market, and show our
customers how safe and sustainable our food
is.
Data - as a shared asset - is even more
powerful. Freed from silos it becomes the
basis of a knowledge infrastructure on which
we can build an even stronger food sector.
This will leverage the Australian government’s
$30.4 billion investment in the NBN.
The future of food is digitally driven with...
• Producers capturing value by responding
to rapidly changing consumer preferences;
• Exceptional quality and food safety
records driving our brand;
• Environmentally and socially sustainable
practices driven by data;
• A knowledge workforce driving
productivity and higher margins;
• Transdisciplinary research solving
business problems through co-creation,
and
• A dynamic social network that shapes our
brand.
A DIGITALLY CONNECTED FOOD WORLD
3
4. THE VISION
Our vision is to empower Australia’s food
industry to grow its comparative advantage
through digital technologies.
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5. 5
Deploy real time big data market intelligence
and predictive analytics that enable food
producers to capture maximum value by
making the right products, for the right
domestic and export markets at the right time.
Link food producers with consumers in new
ways.
Change from a world driven by companies to
a world shaped by the consumer.
Create innovative financial products (e.g.
loans, insurance, valuation to support sale)
based on producers better managing
environmental risk and uncertainty using
digital technology.
Stimulate renewed investment in the food
industry by building confidence in data
enabled productivity gains.
Demonstrate provenance of Australian safe
and sustainable food (animal welfare, food
safety, environmental performance, labour)
while cutting the cost of red tape for business.
Communicate with customers using nimble
apps. Shape a clean & green Aussie food
conversation in key export markets to
command higher premiums, using advanced
social networking strategies.
Use decision support systems to scale
knowledge across the value chain.
Train future workforce in agri-economics and
digital technology through work integrated
learning in order to boost productivity,
sustainability and market led thinking.
Leverage advances in robotics to offset basic
labour shortages.
1. PRODUCE THE RIGHT THING 2. LEVERAGE BRAND AUSTRALIA
3. ACCESS TO FINANCE 4. BUILD FUTURE WORKFORCE
SUPPLY DRIVERS
DEMAND DRIVERS
POWERED BY DIGITAL
TECHNOLOGY
OUR THEMES
6. WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BUSINESS
The Food Agility CRC will work with partners to identify business challenges which we can
use digital technology to solve. Some examples are below.
Barilla Bay Oysters is a major producer of
oysters with over 100 hectares in oyster
leases. They are fully integrated with a
processing plant for frozen half-shells, a
restaurant, a shop and a tourist centre.
Oysters are a live product that command a
premium price. Live oysters from Australia
return ten times a tonne more than cooked
oysters from China. There is a big market
potential in Asia with growers reporting up to
600 per cent margins for exported oysters.
Oyster sales rely on Australia’s reputation
for excellent food safety standards. Oysters
are filter animals. When it rains, oysters
accumulate toxins from land run-off. Based
on data from the nearest weather station, the
regulator then closes oyster farms temporarily
to protect human health.
Each closure can cost growers like Barilla
Bay Oysters between $20,000 to $100,000 a
day; with costs nationally around $34 million
annually. Analysis indicates closures can be
reduced by at least 30 per cent using real-
time salinity sensors.
“We are currently in a commercial trial with
CRC partner ‘The Yield’. Using their technology,
we can reduce the number of harvesting
closure days giving an instant return on
investment.”
Justin Goc, Manager, Barilla Bay Oysters
Skewered Brazilian BBQ is a mobile barbecue
company launched in Melbourne in 2015.
The company uses www.square.com.au to
leverage digital technology and big data
to optimise where and what they sell, and
to minimise waste. Data from the Square
Dashboard accessible onsite is powering their
business to sell what consumers want, where
they want it, at competitive prices. They can
control their inventory to cut down waste,
which also reduces costs.
“Data analysis through Square has been
invaluable for preventing food wastage from
our beginnings. It is socially and economically
beneficial for us as a small company, and
as individuals to be constantly considering
whether or not our food production is accurate
and the data we use allows us to solidify this.”
Emily Gorman, co-creator of Skewered
Brazilian BBQ
2 LEVERAGE BRAND AUSTRALIA
Use Case: Reducing the cost of compliance
with food standards and demonstrating
food safety and provenance
Business challenge: Understanding where and
what customers want and reducing waste
1 PRODUCE THE RIGHT THING
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7. Business challenge: Making more finance
and insurance products available for food
production through better management of risk
3 ACCESS TO FINANCE
The finance and insurance industry price
risk into their products and services. Much
of the risk in food production, particularly on
farm, is driven by unforeseen weather and
environmental conditions.
Digital technology can be used to help
food producers reduce risks through better
decision support tools. They are able to
optimise farm inputs, waste, water and energy
outcomes that in turn enhance natural capital
and ecosystem services. This same data can
then help banks assess risk and how well
these are managed.
For example, farms are less risky when they
manage their natural capital - soil, water and
biodiversity - well. The National Australia Bank
is pioneering valuation of natural capital to
build a portfolio of credit products. This will
deliver access to more funding options to
producers.
“Farmers are innovative on their own land with
respect to their farming practices, and they
are calling for a similar level of innovation from
their financial service providers.”
NAB Chairman Ken Henry
4 BUILD FUTURE WORKFORCE
AgLink has 30 years of experience in
agronomy and is one of Australia’s leading
agricultural business networks. AgLink has 19
shareholding members, with 210 distribution
outlets Australia-wide, over 350 agronomic
staff and sales in excess of $1 billion products
annually.
Each agronomist provides advice and support
to their clients on all aspects of integrated
crop production.
During peak production periods, agronomists
can visit fields weekly. This is time consuming
and expensive. If agronomists can access
accurate data remotely, they could increase
the number of fields they support by 40 per
cent.
This also benefits the growers they serve. The
agronomists will be able to intervene more
quickly and before damage happens to crops.
“There is an Australia-wide shortage of
agronomists making recruitment difficult.
Access to farm specific, real time data will
revolutionize the way agronomists think about
their day to day planning and how they go
about providing advice to clients.”
Phil Hoult, AgLink Seed and Commercial
Manager
Business challenge: Overcoming the chronic
shortage of agronomists in Australia
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8. IMPACT ACROSS THE FOOD VALUE CHAIN
The Food Agility CRC aims to break down data silos with partners that collaborate across the
value chain for fresh and processed food.
Real time market signals from target growth markets will bolster the knowledge infrastructure
that strengthens the entire food industry.
Seafood
Milk
Other
Grains/oil seeds
Meat
34%
28%
22%
10%
6%
Seafood
Dairy products
Wine
Grains
Meat
Other
29%
28%
18%
12%
11%
2%
Horticulture
Seafood
Beverages Other
19%
15%
3%
63%
Flour/cereals
Bakery products
Horticulture
Wine/beer
Dairy Meat
Other
29%
25%14%
14%
7%
6%
5%
Liquor retailing
Other food retailing
Takeaway outlets
Cafes/restaurants
Supermarkets
and grocery
62%12%
10%
10%
6%
IMPORTS
FARM FISH AND
FOOD PRODUCTION
$42.8 Billion
EXPORTS
$31.8 Billion $11.6 Billion
RETAIL FOOD SALESFOOD PROCESSING
Sales and service revenue
$84.9 Billion (2011 - 12 data)
$141.4 Billion
Source: Australian Bereau of Statistics (2013abc; 2014abc)
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9. 9
ENABLING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
The Food Agility CRC will bring together food domain expertise with technology.
DATAPRIVACY
HUMAN INTERFACE
TECHNOLOGY
CYBERSECURITY
DATA SCIENCE & SPATIAL
INFORMATICS
DATA MANAGEMENT &
COMPUTING
SENSING & NETWORKS
ROBOTICS AND
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMSFOODNUTRITIONAND
SAFETY
FOOD, PLANT AND ANIMAL
SCIENCES
CHOICEMODELLING
AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE
ENVIRONMENTAL
(SOIL, WATER,
WEATHER) SCIENCES
FOOD, AGRICULTURAL,
AND RESOURCE
FINANCE & ECONOMICS
+
= Food Agility
2
FOOD SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY
The Food Agility CRC will leverage relevant
products and services from commercial
technology partners to provide a stable and
reliable operational basis for service and
product development.
Mature data analytics platforms already exist
in the market. Other areas of technology are
relatively immature and the digital technology
industry is rapidly evolving. Technology
advancement needs to be agile and adaptive
to end user needs.
The Food Agility CRC’s R&D program will be
driven by solving specific business challenges
and will therefore adapt its R&D program to
meet the specific challenges in each of the
four strategic themes.
It will establish transdisciplinary teams that
span both food domain and technology
related sciences to maximise impact for each
distinct project that it undertakes. Project
teams will draw on both commercial and
private sector R&D capability.
Digital technology related areas include:
• Sensing & networks – to ensure the right
things are measured, and communicated
when it is needed;
• Data management & computing – to
ensure that data is transformed, linked,
stored and reliably made available for
advanced analytics;
• Data science, robotics & spatial informatics
– to create actionable insights and
decision support for situational awareness,
prediction, optimization and autonomous
decision making;
• Human interface technology – to ensure
that digitally enabled decision support
tools are easy to use and effective;
• Cyber-security – to ensure that sensitive
data and algorithms are protected; and
• Data privacy – to ensure that data is able
to be shared in a trusted environment.
10. HOW WE WILL DELIVER FOR INDUSTRY
Food Agility CRC will integrate the agile
culture and processes of the digital economy
through a whole-of-value-chain lens.
By agile we mean:
• Fast-moving, flexible and iterative
challenge response
• Co-created projects where problems are
work-shopped between trans-disciplinary
researchers and market-facing partners
• Commercial partners can come and go
• Staged releases that embed scalability
• Design-led thinking and lean
methodologies
• Collaboration between partners
We will solve business problems using
participatory project design and management.
Each project involves:
• A customer
• A business which wants to deliver the
commercial services
• Researchers from multiple disciplines.
• Delivery of an applied outcome (e.g. an
app, a trial of hardware, an algorithm)
• An agreed IP and commercialisation
strategy.
• An impact assessment methodology
including customer ROI
• The use of technology and data of
commercial partners where relevant, and
leverage the technology stack.
OUR PARTNERS
The Value Proposition for business includes:
• Insight into trials that can be commercially
scaled;
• Access to IP for commercialisation;
• Leveraged R&D at scale with tax
incentives;
• Opportunity to focus some of Australia’s
leading researchers on specific and
individual challenges;
• Early access to talent for recruitment;
• Access to an extensive network of leading
food and technology companies;
• Having your technology demonstrated by
the CRC and its participants;
• Access to expert advice and training on:
•• emerging digital technology;
•• food system knowledge and
challenges; and
• Reputational and leadership advantages.
FOOD VALUE CHAIN COMPANIES
(CORPORATIONS, SMEs AND START-UPS)
RESEARCHERS
TECHNOLOGY, INFRASTRUCTURE
AND SERVICE PROVIDERS
GOVERNMENT
AND REGULATORS
10
11. THE INVESTMENT
The Food Agility CRC has a proposed budget
of $100 million over 10 years. The total CRC
program funding sought is $50 million. The
remainder will come from corporates, industry
bodies, research partners and others.
The CRC will have flexible partner models.
It is possible to substitute and add new
partners. This allows the CRC to adapt and
pivot according to partner and market needs.
It will also drive management discipline to
continuously deliver value to partners.
This means commitments for ten years from
single businesses is not needed – a period of
time over which much will change.
In-kind contributions are vital: some partners
can provide non-cash resources that are
just as important in helping the CRC meet
its objectives. For example, we anticipate
start-up partners will primarily make in-kind
contributions which we highly value. In-kind
could comprise access to staff, IP, technology,
products, services or access to data.
Each major industry partner will be asked to
commit at least one staff member (full-time or
fractional) to work within the CRC to ensure:
• Communication, alignment and rapid
response to changing needs;
• Partners get early knowledge of
formative proof projects and investment
opportunities; and
• The CRC gets rapid access to relevant
industry know-how and networks.
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Contact us:
Mike Briers, mike.briers@foodagility.com, +61 402 838 214
Mara Bún, mara.bun@foodagility.com, +61 448 848 860
Chair
Dr Anne Astin
Food industry leader
Experienced director
CEO
Dr Mike Briers
CEO with track record
Big data strategist
Food Agility CRC
SHARING DATA TO BUILD BRAND, MARKETS, JOBS AND EXPORTS
