Food sector disappointed with Canberra modern manufacturing initiative

By Peter Roberts

The peak body for Australia’s largest manufacturing sector – food and groceries – has expressed disappointment with federal government policy and the rollout of its modern manufacturing initiative.

The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) CEO Tanya Barden told a Senate inquiry this week that the sector needed a more coordinated policy and funding approach if it was to realise its potential in high skills employment and export growth.

She said there was disappointment in the sector over the funds that have gone to the sector in the modern manufacturing initiative, despite it being named by Canberra as one of six national priority areas.

Ms Barden said: “I would say that the sector has been disappointed.

“The pace at getting the dollars rolled out has been slower than anticipated and the level of funding coming forward has been lower than anticipated.”

She said current capital investment of around $3 billion an year needed to grow to $7.5 billion.

“Yet recently we’ve seen $33 million granted through one element of the Modern Manufacturing Strategy.”

The AFGC concerns mirror those of other sectors and manufacturers.

While grant support assists individual companies, the size of the programs and the dollars allocated are far too small to affect the trajectory of manufacturing as a whole and specific sectors such as food and groceries.

The policies look good on paper, and are welcome, but they are not going to change things overall, and the overall trend for manufacturing has been one of declining importance.

AFGC has outlined the steps needed to kick start food and grocery growth in its recent report, Sustaining Australia: Food and Grocery Manufacturing 2030.

Keys are investment in new product development, sustainable packaging, advanced manufacturing and digital technologies.

This requires support for skills development and investment.

Ms Barden said: “Covid has also highlighted just how crucial it is to have sovereign capability in manufacturing.

“There’s been significant disruptions to global supply chains, to local production and to distribution and as a result of that it’s been essential that we’ve been able to ramp up production locally.”

Picture: Tanya Barden

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