Spread the right message
AS THE drought continues to bite here in our region and particularly severely in New South Wales, we are now seeing strong media interest in and around the region on the state of the natural disaster.
While it is great to see the general public taking an interest in our agricultural industries, unfortunately the message I see being delivered is predominately negative of our sector.
While it’s a balancing act in getting the public support for what is such a large-scale natural disaster in New South Wales and northwest Queensland, the underlying fundamentals of our ag industries are still exceptionally strong with good commodity prices, balanced Australian dollar and strong global demand.
This story must continue to be told.
I hold concerns to the lasting public perceptions of an unprofitable and challenging sector which will lead to much greater challenges in the future around workforce attraction, investment attraction and future industry growth.
At Food Leaders Australia, we will continue to promote the agricultural and food industries as long-term, viable industries for investment and career growth.
As for FLA’s activity, it has been a great month within the region, highlighted by the Regional Innovation Tour led by Shark Tank reality star and QLD Chief Entrepreneur Steve Baxter.
At nine events, across 1400km we reached over 400 people and toured businesses in Toowoomba, Dalby, St George and Roma.
The tour saw some fantastic feedback collected on how to best grow innovation within the region and now it’s up to Food Leaders Australia, the Food & Ag initiative of Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise to deliver on these outcomes for our regional communities.
In this vein, we’re currently working furiously to lock in events later in the year to continue momentum and start to build innovative solutions to some of our communities’ biggest challenges.
The tour highlighted what a fantastic position the region is in to become a hub of innovation for food and ag in Australia.
From the growth of a digital economy here in Toowoomba with FKG’s Pulse Data Centre and the investment in super computing to the level of industry engagement in our agricultural industries – we are in the right position to start now to attract world leading businesses to establish and innovate right here in the Toowoomba and Surat region.
This week we’re showcasing the new innovation at NH Foods Oakey meat processing plant with a tour of the facility and networking function, sponsored by Black Toyota.
This is an example of the scale of innovation and investment in our region’s food industry.
We thank the State Government, through the Advancing Regional Innovation Program, in supporting these tours and initiatives.
If you want to be associated with any of the above and learn more about how we’re growing an innovative food industry in Toowoomba, the Darling Downs and Maranoa regions, visit tsbe.com.au.