Skilled workers key to Australia's food future

Skilled workers are key to the future of Australia’s food industry, a new report says.

The Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency’s ‘Food and beverage workforce study’ has found that our agrifood industry - including both agriculture production and food processing - is in transition and needs to attract skilled workers to grow new export markets in the Asian region.

The industry employs approximately 553,000 people and generates around 4% of Australia’s GDP and 11.5% of the value of exports.

While Australia’s agriculture output continues to rise and contribute significantly to exports and the food processing sector is growing, the industry still faces significant challenges, Philip Bullock, chair of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency (AWPA), said.

“Agriculture remains one of Australia’s most productive industries and food and beverage processing is now our largest manufacturing sector in terms of employment,” Bullock said.

“However, the reality is that with limited potential to grow domestic markets, the future lies in us finding new customers in rapidly growing and highly competitive Asian markets.

“The ongoing restructure of the industry resulting in larger farms and the growing use of new technologies in the agriculture and food processing sectors is also requiring workers to have higher level skills.

“Growing skills will require attention and focus as, currently, less than 40% of workers in agriculture and fishing, and 45% in food processing have a post-school qualification, compared to Australia’s all-industries average of 62.”

The study recommends:

• stronger and more coordinated national leadership to drive the agrifood industry workforce development agenda;
• establishing an agrifood career promotion strategy, to raise the profile of agrifood careers and attract new skilled workers;
• developing and using the skills of the existing workforce;
• encouraging more employers to invest in training;
• increasing industry involvement to ensure education and training is industry-relevant;
• increasing the diversity of the food workforce, by encouraging underrepresented groups into the industry.

The study says to meet future demand the agrifood workforce needs training to develop higher level skills: entrepreneurial, leadership, management, mentoring and risk management skills; advanced production techniques; and the ability to translate research and development into successful new products.

The Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency is an independent statutory authority which advises the Australian Government on the nation’s current, emerging and future skills and workforce development needs.

The study is available at www.awpa.gov.au. Visit the website to view the study and register for an AWPA webinar which will discuss the study.