Massive year ahead
WHAT an exciting time to be a foodie on the Darling Downs.
Toowoomba and the surrounding regions are putting themselves on the map as food destinations, and most encouragingly we are seeing all parts of the supply chain benefit, from growers right through to our local consumers.
Recent developments, such as the Eastville site and Walton stores, have brought to town different dining and food experiences of exceptional quality, and combined with the more established business we now have significant choice here in Toowoomba.
Excitingly this food culture is assisting in attracting significant growth and investment in food manufacturing and processing here within the region as well.
This is highlighted by Unilever’s investment in Weis.
We have also seen significant private equity investment in a number of other food processing businesses in the region allowing large inflows of capital to fuel future expansion.
As a region we should be extremely proud of seeing local, premium products in demand around the world.
Here at FLA we take requests from foreign importers seeking local product nearly every day, and they are attracted to the region for the quality and range of our offering.
We are unique in the world in that within a three-hour drive of Toowoomba, 95 per cent of all food varieties consumed in Australia are
produced at some time during the year.
This makes us an attractive region for food processing investment and research.
I was excited to meet with a local business, Agetal, recently which is now leading the country in health and microbial testing of food products.
Attracting these service industries to the region will be a key part of ensuring the success of the food processing sector and a major driver of employment in the
region.
At FLA, we’re excited to deliver programs that will assist in the growth of all sectors involved in food, from producer to consumer.
Through the State Government Advancing Regional Innovation Program and the Emerging Exports Program, powered by QGC, we will be working with start-ups and established business to develop their products and processes to capture new markets, both here and abroad.
These will all kick off early this year so please reach out and get involved.
Producers are seeing real benefits from this growth as well.
Freight savings of delivering product directly to local businesses, rather than to port or interstate is seeing on-farm returns increased, particularly in the grain sector which is benefiting for the lot feeding and beef processing sector growth.
Unfortunately for producers and local traders, in
December we saw India place a 30 per cent tariff on imported chickpeas and lentils, following on from the 50 per cent tariff on field peas in October.
This has seen a large contraction in the farmgate return for these crops.
FLA fully supports Pulse Australia in working with the Australian and Canadian Governments to clarify the matter and seek certainty going forward in India while continually seeking new markets for our product.