Progress association for fire affected businesses
A new West Gippsland Progress Association (WGPA) is being formed to support farmers and local businesses in the Bunyip Complex bushfire-affected area and rural areas of Cardinia Shire.
The WGPA will work as a partnership to connect farmers, businesses and community organisations to boost the economic and community development of rural areas in the shire.
Cardinia Shire community strengthening manager Stephen Sparrow said more than 300 farms were affected by the Bunyip Complex bushfires in March last year.
“While most of these were small scale or parttime family farming operations, they brought in vital income to these families and the shire,” he said.
Mr Sparrow said the WGPA would help these farmers and other local businesses through two strategies:
A food strategy driving farmer collaboration and vertical integration; and,
A tourism strategy raising awareness of local products and services and pulling customers into the rural area.
In the short-term, Mr Sparrow said this would include a mentor system, customised business development programs, events, and a collaborative marketing plan including a regional brand.
It is proposed that the regional brand would bring together farmers and retailers to sell their produce under one regional label.
He said it would have a strong point of difference in the urban food market because the produce from these family farms close to Melbourne is ethically grown and loved with regular human contact.
Council’s bushfire recovery team will work with the WGPA to implement parts of the Cardinia Food Strategy to deliver benefits to fire affected businesses.
Mr Sparrow said one of the food strategy’s key objectives was “growing a vibrant local food economy which supports growers and enables people to access locally produced food.”
He said once the new progress association was established it would be able to consider its role in how this objective may be achieved within the rural eastern part of the shire, particularly within the areas affected by the Bunyip Complex bushfires.