Australia’s $126 billion food, beverage and grocery industries have added value to the local manufacturing, according to the latest research of the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC).
It has significantly increased by more than 30 per cent in seven years, from 2007 to 2014.
AFGC director of Economics Tanya Barden said the policy paper by EY, underlines the importance of the country’s largest manufacturing sector, food and grocery, which represented 30 per cent of total manufacturing in 2014-15.
“This report underlines the value of the Australian food and grocery sector at a time when other manufacturing is moving offshore and being buffeted by internal and external economic pressures,” said Barden.
“Employing over 300,000 Australians, the sector’s Industry Value Add of $29 billion was almost three times higher than the next largest manufacturing subsector – machinery and equipment and fabricated metal.
“Importantly this report shows that Australia’s $126bn food and grocery industry is likely to play an increasingly important role in [the country’s] future manufacturing base as traditional manufacturing areas of strength like the car sector moves off shore, and increased export demand for our food and grocery products increase,” said Barden.
“While domestic conditions remain challenging, food and grocery processing is an area of strong export growth with an 11% surge in food and beverage exports to $26bn last year. These results show a huge potential for future growth.”
Andrew Metcalfe AO, Federal Government and Agribusiness lead partner at EY said that “analysis conducted by EY has found that in Australia’s reputation as a producer of clean and green products remains a key international advantage and combined with rising global demand for food gives [the country] a great opportunity to drive jobs and investment growth for the future.”
“As traditional manufacturing subsectors such as car manufacturing and transport equipment have experienced decline, this has generated opportunities for food and grocery providers to create new jobs and growth is anticipated to continue.”
