THE Department of Agriculture is inviting applications for grants worth $4 million to fund projects to enhance traceability in the food supply chain, enhancing trust in Australian-grown products and boosting the competitiveness of agricultural exporters.
Australia’s reputation as a source of clean, green and safe products has helped secure a strong foothold in dynamic Asian markets seeking healthy, nutritious food.
Effective traceability systems are critical for continued access to these export markets, responding to demand from consumers domestically and internationally for greater transparency and real time convenience around the origins and safety of food in modern digital marketplaces.
An initial $4 million round of Traceability Grants Program funding, opening from January 8, will be available to individuals, communities, government or private sector organisations, as well as agricultural export industries, to enhance traceability in supply chains.
The program will provide opportunities for successful applicants to carry out projects that enhance product traceability and the competitiveness of Australian produce, for example by supporting assertions around organic or location-specific production.
The Traceability Grants Program is part of the Modernising Agricultural Trade agenda announced by the Australian Government to support the target of a $100 billion agricultural sector by 2030. The $7 million program will run over a minimum of two rounds from the end of 2019 to June 2023.
The Traceability Grants Program Opportunity Guidelines set out how the program will operate. The round will open Wednesday 8 January 2020 and will close 21 February 2020.
The Grants program will be managed by the Community Grants Hub which can be accessed here.
Source: Dept of Agriculture
Much more than 7 million will be needed to fix the black hole in the NLIS database. So far NLIS has now cost Australian cattle producers over 2 billion in tags and reading charges alone and has been a dismal failure. This rubbish from the Ag Department to offer a prize for a traceability system is typical of the Canberra bubble mentality( a waste of taxpayers money).
100 billion by 2030,just pluck a figure from the sky and make us feel good.20 million cattle left after the drought and 50 million sheep, grain growing unprofitable since labor abolished the single desk and dairy in collapse since the Nationals deregulated. It seems that Canberra has adopted a Zimbabwe, Soviet Union style propaganda machine saying they are enhancing agriculture as they destroy it.
I wonder if Beef Central could ask the Department to list the markets demanding this traceability. And in the future when someone says “the markets are demanding something” ask the claimer to provide evidence of such a claim.
Because it seems to me when these claims are made, it seems to always be from bureaucratic style entities. I have not heard the larger meat processors come out and say that traceability is key to market access. Especially when there is no discount for animals that have lost traceability. I know there are traceability requirements for EU access, but what other market demands it. Certainly no market with which we compete against the US.