Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre board members announced

Food Innovation Australia Limited (FIAL) has appointed four leading food and agribusiness sector experts to the board of the organisation, which is developing the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre.

Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane said the Australian Government’s $188.5 million Industry Growth Centres initiative was the centrepiece of a strategy to guide industry into a new era of growth, investment and jobs by focusing on areas in which Australia has a competitive edge.

The FIAL Board has been selected by Peter Schutz, chairman of FIAL and the chair of the new Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre. They are: Simplot Managing Director Terry O’Brien, dairy industry expert Jane Bennett, food science research and commercialisation expert Michele Allan and Geoff Starr, director of both food relief charity Foodbank Australia and Australian Pork Ltd. The new board members have advised Schutz on development of the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre’s business plan.

Minister Macfarlane met recently with the full Growth Centres Advisory Committee and all five chairs of the Industry Growth Centres to discuss how the centres will work to address industry-wide issues, including boosting collaboration and commercialisation and increasing access to markets as part of the vision for the Industry Growth Centres initiative.

“Each Growth Centre will encourage greater collaboration between businesses in those sectors where we’ve already got a strong foothold, and where we have the best prospects of future excellence,” Macfarlane said.

The Growth Centres are expected to be operational in the second half of this year. Once established, each Growth Centre will drive growth, productivity and competitiveness to make business easier in each sector by reducing regulatory burden, getting new ideas into the market, improving workforce skills and improving access to international markets and global supply chains.