Growing agriculture theme for conference

The ABARES Outlook 2022 conference will be held this week and for the second year running, it will be online.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Growing agriculture through innovation and sustainability.”

Sessions begin today and will run throughout the week until Friday.

The program includes three, one-hour sessions each day over four days, covering significant trends and issues for the agriculture sector.

Speakers are industry leaders and experts from across Australia and internationally. Sessions include:

Global and national context Drought resilient farms Benefits of water trade in the Basin and how markets could be improved

Trading in a greener environment – can Australia’s ag exports maintain competitive advantage?

Future of food: what it means for Australia Agriculture’s new workforce Plus, key commodities.

One of the highlight presentations through the week will be “Livestock: when premium traits become a social license to operate” to be presented between 3pm and 4pm tomorrow.

This session will look at how, for some products, higher animal welfare, carbon neutrality and certain production inputs (or their absence) are tied to ideas of quality. Such products can earn a price premium.

However, over time, societal expectations change. Minimum requirements can be driven not only by consumers, but by those completely removed from the supply chain.

With livestock prices breaking records through 2020-21 and strong prices for livestock commodities forecast to continue, how do producers position themselves to maintain social license over the coming decades?

Speakers include: Jonathan Wong from ABARES, who will set the scene with an overview of the livestock industry; Angus Gidley-Baird from Rabobank; and, Holly Ludeman from The Livestock Collective, who will provide a live export case study and discuss Australian community acceptance driving changes in trade.

Another popular session will be “Dairy - the future of milk pricing and marketing” between 3pm and 4pm on Friday.

Hear from a line-up of expert speakers, including Scott Briggs from Bridgecape Commodities and Mick Keogh from the ACCC. This session will discuss the various aspects of milk pricing in Australia, including deregulation, price bidding wars, the Australian Milk Price Initiative and the ACCC’s inquiry, all of which have contributed to a significant transformation in Australia’s dairy industry.

The Australian Milk Price Initiative is positioning to be the next big transformation in this industry. Explore recent developments in milk pricing mechanisms and how it will affect the dairy industry in the future.

The session also included Ann Gardiner from Gardiner Farms on “milk pricing - what has changed on the farm?” and Janine Waller of Australian dairy Products federation.

To register or see the full program of topics and speakers, go to https://www.awe.gov. au/abares/outlook/2022-program