Goal: continue to deliver safe food, feed and other grain products.

Target: 100% of grain supply chain participants demonstrate they meet the principals of safe food and feed product.

Why

The vast majority of Australian grains are used for food and animal feed. Continuing to provide safe food and feed products for customers is critical for ongoing trust.

Context

Australian grain has earned a reputation for quality, reliability and food safety. In addition to government regulation at local, state and federal levels, this integrity is underpinned by selfregulation through codes of practice and sector-specific guides. One way of measuring the effectiveness of industry systems is National Residue Survey (NRS) compliance rates. The NRS grains program involves the sampling and testing of Australian export and domestic traded grains for a range of pesticides and environmental contaminants.

Data gap

As part of building a food safety culture right along the supply chain industry needs to assess if systems are needed to better measure food safety. This target is for such measures to demonstrate food safety principles are being met along the supply chain by 2030.

Goal: proactively address our consumers’ evolving food safety expectations and health needs.

Target: year-on-year improvement in the perception of the Australian grains industry as a supplier of safe, health grains aligned to consumer needs.

Why

Better understanding of consumer needs underpins market growth.

Context

The industry has long responded to specific consumer needs. For example, a specific variety of wheat has been bred to serve the market for udon noodles in Japan, and mungbeans, chickpeas and lentils are relatively new Australian crops being bred to meet international consumer preferences. The ability to understand, anticipate and respond to changing consumption preferences in the type of food they eat and how and when they consume it is important to build the industry’s resilience.

Data gap

The Australian grains industry does not currently have a single body providing an industry focused marketing role. While many individual grain businesses research consumer requirements, plans are underway for AEGIC to gather consumer insights across our key exports markets for the benefit of the whole industry. This research would provide data for these indicators.

Goal: support innovations which enhance our supply chain’s ability to meet the future expectations of our consumers and the community.

Target: develop a way of measuring and monitoring innovation performance by 2021. Targets to be set after this.

Why

Innovation is an important driver of sustainable grain production and productivity. It also reduces the risk of impacts from environmental, technology, market access and other unforeseen events.

Context

The grain industry emits greenhouse gases, primarily through use of energy and fertilizer. Vegetation on grain farms also naturally removes CO2 from the environment through photosynthesis. Actions to improve soil health and conservation, covered by the previous two goals, have the potential to increase the amount of CO2 sequestered on grain farms. Businesses along the supply chain are looking to reduce their emissions including through use of renewable energy.

Data gap (farm)

Access to all available innovations including new technology in plant breeding, inputs and automation will be critical for the grains industry to deliver sustainable and resilient food production systems that increase productivity, help maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change and progressively improve land and soil quality.

Data gap (post-farm)

Innovation is challenging to measure at the industry scale. Work is underway to assess how best to do this.

Goal: increase awareness and trust in how grain products are produced.

Target: increase the proportion of the Australian community that value the importance of grain products and trust grain farmers to act responsibly.

Why

Our increasingly consumer-focused industry needs the trust and support of the community to maintain its licence to grow. A rapid or trending decline in trust would present a major risk to the industry’s ability to operate effectively.

Context

People across the industry are working to improve environmental stewardship, to build the capability of the workforce, and responsiveness to changing consumer needs. This is underpinned by a strong regulatory system and government bodies to keep pests and disease out, to regulate the safe use of inputs, to protect environmental and worker health, and to monitor grain food safety. The successful implementation of the Behind Australian Grain sustainability framework will be a key tool to further improve trust and awareness in the production of Australian grains.