Aussie food ecosystem shows agility in pandemic

23/3/21

Major Australian supermarket chain Woolworths has innovated more last year than in the previous five years.

Woolworths Group Chair Gordon Cairns made the claim at the recent 2021 Food Agility Summit as part of his keynote address, Matt Russell writes for FreshPlaza. 

Cairns went on to detail some of the innovations his company has brought about, such as car boot deliveries, the Basic Box delivery in partnership with couriers DHL and the ability to see when stores are at their busiest.

Cairns also spoke about innovation in food production, detailing how Australians spent 60 per cent more at Woolworths in 2020 on plant-based protein products, Kim Berry writes for Food & Drink Business.

He also quoted research from think tank Food Frontier that found “74 per cent of consumers said (the) Australian made (label) was important in their purchasing decision making”.

A research project to measure optimal summer fruit growing and harvesting conditions is being validated to determine success.



Research scientist Mark O’Connell told the Food Agility Summit that Sensors for Summerfruit, led by Agriculture Victoria, will enable more domestic sales and exports of stone fruit by more accurately measuring fruit maturity, Matt Russell writes for Fresh Plaza.

In his presentation, Dr O’Connell said, “Our approach is to develop, calibrate, validate and evaluate these sensors and platforms that will give growers and packers data and information on when to pick and any changes to orchard management."   

Fellow researcher Alessio Scalisi told attendees, “We are trying to predict in advance when storage disorders will develop; such as mealiness, leathery/rubbery texture and internal browning.”

The project began in October 2020 and is expected to finish in early 2023.

Research scientists have put out a call for dairy farmers in Victoria to validate an app that has been built to better measure and manage pasture.

The DairyFeedbase Pasture Smarts project, developed in a collaboration between Agriculture Victoria, Dairy Australia and the Gardiner Foundation, aims to automate dry matter yield assessment and related metrics in real time, according to Farm Online National. 

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