Pete Lewis:
Welcome to Cooperative Conversations, the livestream series where we connect you with the real stories of Australian primary producers who are working and growing together in cooperatives.
Pete Lewis:
Hi, my name’s Pete Lewis, and one way or another I’ve been helping Australian farmers tell the great stories of food and fibre production here for the past 25 years. Tonight we’re being joined by a wonderful group of people starting with the Federal Minister for Industry Science and Technology, the Honourable Karen Andrews, Larry McHugh, who’s the CEO of Marquis Macadamias, Matt Rutter who’s the CEO of the Geraldton Fisherman’s Coop, Simon Stahl, the CEO of the Northern Cooperative Meat Company in the New South Wales Northern River, and Michael Hampson who is the CEO of Norco, also in my neck of the woods, and of course last but not least, Melina Morrison who is the CEO of the Business Council for Cooperatives and Mutuals. Welcome everybody, and thanks so much for your time.
Pete Lewis:
Tonight we’re discussing how farm cooperatives can be key contributors to growing a successful, and sustainable domestically owned food and beverage manufacturer sector. The opportunity for a manufacturing led economic recovery with a focus on advanced food manufacturing has become part of the national conversation largely due to the need to find ways to add value to farm incomes as well as to local economies as we recover from the pandemic. We’re also looking, and really keen to get your input, so we want to involve you, and get you to join the conversation via our poll for tonight. The question is, value added production is an opportunity for Australian farmers to diversify, and improve farm income. Should we do more to value add food and beverage manufacturing in Australia? Answer in the chatbox to the right of the screen.
Pete Lewis:
Joining in this conversation tonight we’re very pleased to have, as I said, the Honourable Karen Andres, the Federal Minister for Industry Science and Technology to kick off, and take part in the discussion, and outline the government’s vision for Australia going forward. Good evening Minister, and thanks again for joining us tonight.
Pete Lewis:
You recently gave a speech outlining your reasons for believing that Australia can secure our economic sovereignty by building an even stronger local, advanced food and beverage manufacturing sector. What is that opportunity, Minister, and what are the building blocks we need to make it happen?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Okay, well thank you so much for the opportunity to join in the discussion today, and it’s a discussion that I think is so important for Australia. I’d just like to spend a bit of time putting a bit of context around where we find ourselves now because this provides us with a platform, with an opportunity that quite frankly is once in a lifetime, probably, definitely once in a generation opportunity that we’re facing now.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
So, we’re all aware that Australia has done pretty well in steering its way through the COVID crisis, and that’s thanks a lot to our businesses around Australia, our cooperatives how have done such an amazing amount of work, so congratulations, and thank you for that.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
When we actually look at Australia’s economy, and the options for us going forward, this is the time for us to reassess our opportunities for the future. Now, as the Industry Minister I look broadly across all industry sectors, and I’ve been doing that now, seriously, for the last 18 months. What we have to do now is revisit some of that work with what I call the COVID lens to look at what we’ve learned out of the COVID experience, and how we position ourselves for the future.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Now, it’s clear that we have some very longstanding skills and expertise in areas such as mining resources, but we also have a very strong skills in the agricultural sector, and if you look at opportunities for the future we have to build on what our strengths already are, which s mining resources, and food and Ag, and we also need to look at emerging opportunities, and that could include looking at the space sector, it could be plastics recycling, it could be looking at defence. I guess for the purposes of today I’ll actually focus on food and Ag in particular.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
So, 25% of Australia’s manufacturing is food related, and we have enormous opportunities for us to build on what is already a strong food manufacturing base. We can do that with meat processing, but we can also do that with our cropping, and our out processing of those crops and grains. Now, I had some discussions with many of my counterparts overseas, but in Southeast Asia about 12 months ago about what the opportunities are. Saint Paul was particularly interested in working with us to develop opportunities. Clearly they can’t grow enough food to support their own needs, so they’re looking at what the opportunity are with us. Vegetarian veganism is now certainly trending around the world. Many people are moving away from meat based to plant based foods, and particularly with many of our nearest neighbors looking at plant based foods is something that they’re very keen for us to do. What we need to do is make sure that we are continuing to be world leading with our primary producers, but also looking at building our manufacturing opportunities in food, and developing those markets.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Now, given that we are a population of about 25 million we have to develop export markets. We currently produce enough food to feed ourselves, more than enough, at least triple the amount that we need, but let’s look at growing and developing those markets. So, I see that we have enormous opportunity in food and beverage to expand our manufacturing base, but we have to be very niche, and targeted with what we’re doing. I think as Australians we’ve spent a lot of time trying to please everyone, to be all things to all people, and now we have to look at where our strengths are, and how we maximise those opportunities.
Pete Lewis:
Well, as you said, Australia’s been the breadbasket for the region for decades. Is the government’s view that we should be investing more in adding value to our raw produce here in Australia?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Value adding is one of the most important things that we can be doing, and if I use the mining and resources sector here we’ve been criticised for 30 years if not longer. The fact that we are exceedingly good at digging our minerals out of the ground, very good at putting them on ships, and sending them overseas where we then spend an enormous amount of money buying them back because someone else has value added to that. We need to change that. We also need to change it in our food and Ag areas as well, so yes. I’m very focused on value add because that’s where we’re going to have the biggest impact in our economy quite frankly, so yes. The value add is going to be very important. We do want to concentrate on our food processing, and building on our capabilities.
Pete Lewis:
How important is innovation to small, medium enterprises in the food industry, whether they’re part of a cooperative or not?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Yeah, it’s absolutely critical, and look. Sometimes innovation is not perceived in the positive light that I think that it should be. Many people get very concerned about innovation and technology, and I think it’s because they’re concerned that they’re going to lose their jobs through innovation, and robotics in particular is going to mean that there will be fewer jobs.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
The point that I like to make is that the jobs of the future are going to be very different, so if we even look at our past history, jobs that were available 10 years ago have changed considerably, but it’s been a slower transition, and people have been more willing to be part of that change process. When people look to the future they think that it’s coming towards them at a great pace, and in many cases quite frankly, let’s be honest, it is coming at us very quickly, but we do need to look at innovation. We need to look at certainly what businesses are already doing every single day, whether it’s looking at a new product, a new crisis, a new way of doing things. All of that is part of innovation, and it just means that these are opportunities for us to do better.
Pete Lewis:
Well, as you move around the country, and you engage with the sector, do you get a sense there’s a willingness to look at new processes, and new product?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Absolutely, because many people just see it as the work that they do every single day. How am I going to build this faster? How am I going to produce this quicker? How am I going to produce a better product? What do I need to do in the Ag space? What do our prime producers need to do to maximise what their outcomes are going to be? This is what business owners in particular look at every single day, so yes. There is a willingness. Some of them are a little bit puzzled that all of a sudden it gets re-badged as innovation, and it’s something that everyone wants to jump onboard with, but there is. There is a very strong interest in doing things better in Australia, and maximising opportunities, and that’s what innovation is.
Pete Lewis:
One of the things that’s certainly come out of this series is that the food sector in general has really emerged as a strong performer during COVID-19. They have just kept the wheels turning. They’ve kept the supply lines open, and notwithstanding some panic buying they’ve managed to provide Australians with all the things that they require. Is that a pretty fair view?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Look, the food sector actually did really very well. The issue was more of a restocking issue than a supply issue, so yes. When there was the panic buying, and to be honest I thought I would be, at one stage, spending the rest of my life talking about toilet paper, and the need not to panic buy toilet paper, and that really has come a little bit in cycles, but there was a rush on some food products, such as pasta, flours, tomatoes, tin tomatoes in particular, so there was a bit of panic buying there, and there were some restocking issues where we just couldn’t get the product onto the shelves as quickly as it was being purchased, but I think that what people realised is that we do have good food supplies here in Australia, and we also have a high quickly product. That makes us very attractive for people as they’re looking for those sorts of products here in Australia, but it also makes us a very attractive option overseas because we are seen food wise, to be clean, green, and we’re also seen now as very dependable.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Again, this is the opportunity that COVID has presented us that we need to maximise.
Pete Lewis:
Well, dependable is an appropriate word I guess. Do you get a sense that Australia now has a slightly higher regard for farmers, and the food sector generally than it may have had six months ago?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Yeah, absolutely because I think they’ve all figured out now where their food actually comes from in the first place. I think they also understand how hard it has been for a lot of our primary producers over the last few years. They’ve been hit by drought. They’ve been hit by bushfires, but they’re still in there, and they’re producing it at a level that is making sure that we have the ability to feed ourselves here in Australia, so yes. Where would we be without our farmers quite frankly.
Pete Lewis:
Thank you, Minister. Strong evidence that food and beverage manufacturing have a key role to play in the Australian economy.
Pete Lewis:
We’re fortunate to have tonight a very strong group of Australian food producers who are all involved in adding value to farming in one way or another. It’s a great opportunity to hear from Aussie coops forward right around the country. They’re leading the way in pivoting their production processes in order to value add. All of our guests tonight are working to control supply lines, utilise technology, boost local employment, up skill their workers, and improve operations to boost productivity and competitiveness. All of which supports improved access to domestic markets, and of course important international export markets.
Pete Lewis:
Let’s talk to our guests and find a little bit about their plans for value adding. Starting with Michael Hampson, CEO of Norco. Now, there’s probably possibly not a better known cooperative brand in the country than Norco. They’ve been going for 125 years. You must know a think or two, Michael, about how to add value to dairy products, and also how to keep farmers in business. Tell us a little bit about Norco, and what foods you manufacture, and how your cooperative works.
Michael Hampson:
Thanks, Peter. Norco’s been around for 125 years, and yes. We have value added a lot of dairy product over that time. We currently a manufacture a fairly full range of milk product, fresh milk products for both Australia, and overseas. We export fresh milk over to China, and parts of Southeast Asia. We also have a bunch of specialty products where our team have innovated to find different mixes of proteins and fats that provide enhanced milk for coffee frothing, et cetera, through our vibrant route business that we have. We also have an award winning range of flavoured milks that Norco markets under, under its brands throughout our heartland also.
Michael Hampson:
In addition to our fresh milk business we also have an ice cream business. We make about 55 million litres of ice cream here at our factory at Lismore, and we have that in tub formats, pots, extruded sticks, and again we do that for the domestic market, a fairly big domestic focus there, but also if you like business where we send our ice cream into China, and the US, and other countries, both for the food service, and also the retail channel. In that business issue we’ve got about 35 new products that are being launched this year as well, so we’ve got a fair amount of activity that we have in terms of innovation in our product space, but also in our processes where we’ve looked to make significant investment over the years, so we can really pull out the supply chain costs, and lower our internal costs, so we can provide more value back to the farmers. This year we’ve actually provided an additional about 18 million dollars more to our dairy farmer members in higher milk prices this year than what we have done in the prior year, which is really good for our members in that really tough time around the drought.
Pete Lewis:
Before the pandemic you had plans for expanding your ice cream factory. How many jobs would that have created, and is there anything preventing you from following through on that strategy?
Michael Hampson:
Norco very much has a strong reputation of being a quality and reliable manufacturer of ice cream in both Australia and overseas. So, we have got some significant growth plans for that business. Paying out an additional 18 million dollars to our members in high milk prices over the year, which they desperately needed because it was the worst drought in living memory. That sort of depletes the capital reserves of our business somewhat, so we would be keen to continue those plans because we would see an extra 30 to 40 jobs come in our site, but not only that, but there’s 200 people that are employed at that particular site also that this kind of investment just underpins that employment in our region of Lismore, which isn’t necessarily a high employment area. It’s actually a low. It is a high unemployment area. That would provide security for those jobs for the next 10 to 15 years, which would be very important for our region.
Pete Lewis:
Thanks, Michael. We have a question now from the audience. This one from Simon Lane who’s one of the cooperative farming project envoys, and also the former chairman of Almondco Australia, a South Australian based almond processing company.
Simon Lane:
My question is to the panel. Since you’ve been adding value in your business, what benefits has this brought to your local community, to your members, and to your region?
Pete Lewis:
Now, who would like to have a go at that first up?
Michael Hampson:
I could certainly take an answer to that if that was okay.
Pete Lewis:
Most definitely.
Michael Hampson:
So, Norco operates in very much a regional area, from a very large geographical spread, from Kingaroy in the north to Heather Brae in the south. We employ 850 people across that geographical footprint. We’re an organisation that returns by far the vast amount of value that we create into the local community. We do that through wages. We do that through investment, and we do that through paying a leading milk price to our dairy farmer members. That is the core part of how our business operates. We have a board of six directors. Those six directors are dairy farmers, so the governance structure of our organisation insights very much setup to ensuring that we are taking a holistic supply chain view across our entire geography, not just a business profitability lens. We are looking at entire supply chain, and industry sustainability, and that’s the role that we look to play in the industry. The last 12 months is certainly an example of that where we’ve been able to put an additional 18 million dollars out there in milk price on top of the about 150 million dollars just in milk price that we would normally put out, plus the additional couple hundred million dollars in wages that we pay over that particular region. These are all regional Australian based from, again, Kingaroy in the North to Heather Brae in New South Wales in the South.
Pete Lewis:
Well, what are some of the others of you think about it? Larry?
Larry McHugh:
Look, our cooperatives continue to bring money into the community since 1983, and the industry’s grown a lot in that time, so I think that the Lismore region has done very well from our cooperative and others.
Pete Lewis:
Simon Stahl from the Northern Cooperative Meat Company.
Simon Stahl:
Yeah, look, I think there’s obviously the financial returns to the community. There’s the employment. There’s our sponsorship of local events, and local charities, but I think it also brings a sense of pride to a community to feel that they actually belong to this international business, that it’s their own, and that they get to go to an AGM and vote on it. I think that the intrinsic value of that alone is worth a hell of a lot.
Pete Lewis:
Matt Rutter, is Geraldton proud to ride on the back of rock lobsters?
Matt Rutter:
Yeah, very proud. We’re obviously one of the primary industries in Geraldton, but we’re across all of the coastal towns, up and down 1,000 kilometres of coastline, which to be honest wouldn’t exist, some of those smaller towns, if there wasn’t the rock lobster industry generating the local economy because there’s simply no other business that goes on there, but it underpins then the tourism in those towns. It also gives a sense of identity. I agree with what’s been said earlier around the sense of identity linking in with this really important community resource. So like I say, it’s fundamental to those regional towns. Simply in our case, probably 50% of them would simply not exist.
Pete Lewis:
Matt, let’s go to you and your coop. Your co-operative handles a very different product to Norco, seafood. Tell us a bit more about the Geraldton Fisherman’s Co-operative, and the value adding you’re involved in.
Matt Rutter:
Yeah, thanks, Pete, and thanks for the opportunity to talk today in this really important project. I’d just like to congratulate BCCM, and the Co-operative Farming team for what I think is a really valuable exercise of sharing these stories.
Matt Rutter:
It’s interesting actually because listening to Michael on the story of Norco, there’s a lot of parallels actually in terms of our regional spread, the return to the community, and then business model, and the way that we measure success in terms of value return back to our members. The main difference is that our primary producers are on the ocean, and they’re catching western rock lobster, which is the largest wild caught fishery in Australia. We export approximately four million kilo of the product year, so around about 400 million dollars worth of high value seafood into the international market, and over the last 70 years our members have essentially built their supply chain all the way from the beach, stretching across 1,000 kilometres of coastline through to a central exporting facility in Perth, and then from there supplying the product all around the world as well as into their own company, which they wholly own within China, and supplying literally to customer’s doors in China.
Matt Rutter:
So, we’ve invested, and over that 70 years the members have worked together, and have really built a highly efficient, and top quality supply chain. Our core business is receive all, storage, and marketing of the lobster, but we also provide additional services which benefit our members, which includes things such as marine supplies, boat lifting, quota sourcing. We have a fish and chips shop, and a few other things, which returns value to the local communities as well. Essentially we’re a shared services model where our members benefit from economies of scale, and working together, and all of the measures that Michael spoke about earlier in terms of making sure that we’re maximising revenue, and minimising cost very much apply to us as well.
Matt Rutter:
In terms of the value adding, when you start talking about value adding top of the list for me really is, in terms of the ways that we value add, top of the list for me really is working together as a cooperative. We have a couple of hundred members who individually, if they didn’t have their cooperative, would be selling to independent buyers. They wouldn’t be getting the benefits of working together under a common brand, and a common supply chain to ensure that the maximise value is returned to them as the primary producers, but on top of that obviously we have the brand. The way that we sell our lobsters overseas is really important to us, so we option the product every day online to ensure that every single day, as a live product, we sell into the highest payers in the market as well as exploring other opportunities, such as selling via ecommerce in China in particular. So, selling individual live lobsters across China into consumer’s homes.
Matt Rutter:
Those are the ways that we add value, and again, fundamental it’s a very simple business model fundamentally. We aim to maximise revenue, minimise cost, and return as much back to our members, which ultimately returns value back into the communities that they live in.
Pete Lewis:
Now, critically of course your business requires airfreight to get the lobsters from Western Australia to many of their overseas markets, and airfreight was obviously seriously compromised during the pandemic crisis. Did being a cooperative help you resolve some of those challenges?
Matt Rutter:
Yeah, well they were certainly significant challenges because we essentially we were hit by COVID when China went down because over 90% of our product goes to China, and as China was starting to regain its foothold, and was starting to come out, and consume again the world’s airlines fleets were grounded. So, at the time we worked very closely with the federal government, and again we got some assistance with BCCM around this, and I think the fundamental message to the government as a cooperative is that we were speaking on behalf of hundreds of member families, and the beneficiaries of the fishery rather than speaking as a corporate who was looking at their own bottom line. We’re looking at the bottom line of hundreds of individual businesses, and we could show the government how we could, if they could help us to get the planes back in the air, how we could return that value back into the communities, which obviously is critical at a time like this. We were fortunate enough through those discussions that the federal government gave our industry the first grant under the international freight assistance mechanism, which meant that we could get the fishers back in the water. We could get the planes back in the air, and the product flying, and most importantly export revenues back into the regions.
Pete Lewis:
That’s great, Matt, and I guess, Minister, this is just another really good example of where the federal government did step up with targeted assistance with particular needs, in this case rock lobster fishermen from MW. It seems to have really hit the spot.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Absolutely, and we were only really able to provide that level of very targeted support because of the engagement that we had with the sector, and their ability to feed through to us exactly what was needed, so we were pretty pleased to be able to support because it was really important.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Now, clearly what has been demonstrated for us during COVID is freight issues. There were significant issues getting product into the country, and also getting product out of the country, and it’s still difficult. Quite frankly, we certainly aren’t back to anywhere near the levels that we need to with freight, so that we can export the products that we need, but it is important that we do all keep working together, and as we’ve just heard, the payback to the community has been absolutely enormous. So, again, thank you very much.
Pete Lewis:
Let’s take a question that’s been submitted by our audience, this one from Rob Horne who’s a cattle producer from Dungog in New South Wales, and here’s his question. Minister, a key driver for manufacturing is our export capability. Coops can help small to medium businesses access export markets. What else do we need to do to improve access to export markets for our small and medium farming and food enterprises?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Look, good question because export markets are vitally important to us here, particularly given the size of our nation, and it is important that we are looking at as many export markets that we can access. So, there’s a couple of opportunities for us to work together. Through my own department there’s AusIndustry, and I’m keen to make sure that we’ve got a high level of engagement, so that we can look at how we can develop appropriate export markets, and I mean appropriate in terms of the product that we have, and where that’s best suited in a global market. So, we’ve got AusIndustry that we can call on, and will be calling on. We’ve also got Austrade that does a lot of work with assisting businesses to access export markets. I think it’s time that we have a very coordinated approach for that, and one of the things that we know from the way that cooperatives work is that you can get a level of scale there for markets.
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Now, we did discover during the COVID crisis that many of our manufacturers, in particular our producers, were small, couldn’t supply the demands that we needed in a time of crisis, so here’s an opportunity for cooperatives to really start accessing export markets, and the way to do that is through AusIndustry, and through Austrade.
Pete Lewis:
Thanks for that. Now we’ll talk to Simon Stahl. He’s the CEO of the Northern Cooperative Meat Company. Now, like Norco, NCMC hails from the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.
Pete Lewis:
Simon, what’s the structure of your coop, and what do you process and manufacture?
Simon Stahl:
The structure of our coop’s straight forward in terms of membership. We’ve got around 900 members from quite a wide area in Victorian border up into the far north in Queensland.
Simon Stahl:
I guess in terms of structure one thing we are quite unique is that the members are only required to supply a small amount of their produce to stay what we call wet shareholders in the group, and I think that in part giving the members that choice to sell their produce elsewhere is probably why we’re still around today, but of course that advantage for the members is a disadvantage for us, so we’ve got to get that balance right, but I think it’s worth pointing out it’s quite a unique relationship with our membership.
Simon Stahl:
In terms of what we produce, we process beef, and pork. We do the slaughtering. We do the de-boning, and over the last couple of years we started to develop our own retail ready processing rooms, which we’ve now got direct brands into the Kohl’s, and Woolworth’s, all the major retailers of the country, and just as importantly we’ve started doing those retail packs into Asia in particular. As with previous discussions we do believe that that is where the future lies in terms of value adding in our world.
Simon Stahl:
The other interesting part to our processing is we have a wet blue hide factory, so obviously a byproduct of processing cattle is the hide. Wet blue, or tanning, is the first stage of leather making, and there’s one of only three sheds in Australia that do the wet blue processing. I am one of the view that we should be doing more textiles manufacturing in Australia, so looking forward to working with the Minister on that as we go forward.
Pete Lewis:
Simon, you’re involved in a local collaboration of cooperatives. Can you tell us about the Cooperative Alliance, and how the group works together to overcome roadblocks such as energy and labor cost?
Simon Stahl:
Look, we formed the collective probably five or six years ago now, and one thing that’s really important, and it’s why you become a cooperative in the first place, is to keep on looking for that innovative piece about scale and synergies. The Northern Rivers is actually probably the capital of cooperatives in Australia, so it was an opportunity to get with the big manufacturers such as Norco, the sugar mills, down to the small fisherman’s coops. To meet regularly as we do, and talk about what are some of the issues that actually cross all of our divide, and further too there, what are the synergies in our business. Could we be swapping some information around engineering?
Simon Stahl:
Michael’s company, Norco, and us are working together in China, and so those opportunities for us Australian owned companies to get some scale, and work together is a terrific opportunity, and that’s what we’re do in that work.
Pete Lewis:
Thanks, Simon.
Pete Lewis:
Now, following on from our earlier conversation with Larry McHugh, CEO of Marquis Macadamias, welcome back. I’m interested to hear your views on the economic value already created through through cooperative food processing venture.
Larry McHugh:
I think the other speakers today have highlighted what our businesses do in regional areas. In my opinion, they turn small, less viable businesses into world class enterprises. Australia has a unique clean, green image around the world, an image of stability, and by bringing a whole lot of smaller growers together we’re able to harness their power, and access the world with that clean, green image. So, in the case of our company we’ve had 350 growers get together, and that’s enabled us to approach some of the biggest retailers around the world to get products onto their shelf.
Larry McHugh:
Those retailers love the fact that we are owned by growers, and they use it as part of their story. Consumers love to know where their product comes from, and a cooperatives lends itself to that sort of selling.
Larry McHugh:
What happens then is because of our overseas footprint we sell 70% of our product overseas. We’re generating a lot of export dollars into Australia, and as with the other cooperatives, that money’s coming back into Australia, but most importantly it’s coming into our regional areas. So, our 350 growers are all paid for their product, and we, as with Norco, we give almost all the money back to growers except for what’s needed for future expansion. That money is then used by them to employ people, to buy products in the local area. We’re also buying products in the local area, so we’re generating overseas dollars, bringing them into areas, creating jobs, and creating money flowing through these areas, which would otherwise not have a lot of money flowing through them.
Pete Lewis:
Give us a bit of a feel for the potential of this growth. How big do you think it actually could get?
Larry McHugh:
There’s the world’s the oyster. Now, if we’re talking in particular about macadamias, the macadamia industry around the world is growing very quickly, and Australia is up there. We’re the second, or the largest in the world depending on the year, and that’s a very valued product around the world. We’re a [inaudible 00:35:23] tree nut and people love the product around the world. I think having a cooperative base is really helping us access world markets. We now have a world leading macadamia marketing company in our stable, and we intend to build the product as very prominent around the whole world.
Pete Lewis:
Do you actually also help sell the message at the same time that this is a Queensland nut, and not one from Hawaii because anybody’s who’s spent even a short amount of time in Hawaii would tend to think they invented it.
Larry McHugh:
That is true, and unfortunately that myth is perpetrated in China where the translation for the name of the nut is Hawaiian nut. We spend a lot of time pointing this out to people, but unfortunately there’s been a lot of work beforehand from the Hawaiians, so it’s taking us some time to get there, but certainly when we’re dealing with the supermarkets, and manufacturers of the world they’re well aware that it’s an Australian product, and that we’re growing it in the region that it was meant to be growing in, and that’s one of our big selling points.
Pete Lewis:
Back to Karen Andrews now. Minister can you see how the government can work more closely with the cooperative sector on advanced food manufacturing opportunities?
The Hon. Karen Andrews, MP:
Absolutely there are opportunities for us to continue the level of engagement we’ve had over the last couple of months in particular. I’m very ken to do that because what COVID has demonstrated very clearly is we’re all going to achieve much more for Australia when we do have that high level of engagement, and cooperation for the future, so we need to keep that engagement going. It’s very important that we hear from the sectors about the issues that they’re facing, so that we can provide some very targeted support as we discussed earlier in today’s discussion. So, I think that’s all very quartered. I’m very keen to continue to work with the sector, and continue the engagement we’ve had particularly recently.
Pete Lewis:
Thanks, Minister. I want to bring Melina Morrison into the conversation now.
Pete Lewis:
Melina, you advocate for better awareness for the cooperative business model. Why is it important to include cooperatives in any discussion about advanced manufacturing in your view?
Melina Morrison:
Thanks for the question, Pete, and thanks to all of these great case studies. We’ve really heard it from the horse’s mouth so to speak tonight. We’ve heard that the great advantage that you have when you cooperate is that you can scale into export markets. You can make sure that the lion’s share of the value that you’re creating comes back to the farm gate. You can share the costs of investing in advanced processing facilities across a range of producers. You can manage the costs of production to make it all much more feasible, and profitable to be in advanced areas of manufacturing, but most importantly cooperatives do a very, very important thing to scale enterprise. They enable small, independent producers to come together, and compete in many markets, and we heard it from the Minister before. We really need to build on our home growing capacity. We need to be able to scale, particularly into export markets, but at the same time that scaling is happening local ownership is retained, and that means that more of the value is captured back into the local economy. It’s returned and reinvested.
Melina Morrison:
When cooperatives are able to scale they create new, high quality jobs, and the Minister, and the other speakers have already spoken about how they can create value for the wider community tonight, so that’s really important because as we need to power out of this crisis, and any crisis in the future, we need to be able to boost the regional economy, and make sure that as we scale, and into new areas of manufacturing and processing, hopefully, that we’re also capturing that value, and that’s what cooperatives do in spades.
Pete Lewis:
Thanks, Melina. Now we go to a video question, which has been submitted all the way from Carnarvon in Western Australia. Let’s go to a question from Doriana Mangili from the Sweeter Banana Cooperative.
Doriana Mangili:
Hi to the panel. Cooperatives are great at coming up with solutions to overcome problems, but our achievements are often overlooked. I’m really proud of how Sweeter Banana has overcome challenges with new solutions, whether that’s our banana bread after a cyclone event to use up damaged fruit, our self-insurance fund, or even the innovation of the lunchbox bananas. Why do you think we don’t hear more about cooperatives?
Matt Rutter:
Yeah, I agree. Fantastic question, Doriana, and I think the big thing for cooperatives is first and foremost getting the word out to the Australian public, and letting them really understand the coop model, and letting them know that the majority of them are actually members of cooperatives already, and the benefits that they get back to themselves through whatever cooperative model, or mutual model that they’re a member of.
Matt Rutter:
Then I think the next piece is really what we’re doing today. We’ve just got to get out there, and share the story, and I think from my conversations through COVID, I think that people really, the concept of we’re all in it together, which everyone thinks is a COVID concept is really at the core of what cooperatives are, and we are all in it together. We need to work together within our cooperatives, between our cooperatives, and with the wider community. I think we just really got to start sharing our successes. I think we’ve all been focused on doing a good job, and focused on our members, but I think remember the seventh coop principle of communities, and making sure the communities see the benefit that they get from the coops, either directly or indirectly.
Pete Lewis:
And, Simon, I guess the whole thrust of the Cooperative Alliance is that there’s great strength in numbers.
Simon Stahl:
Yeah absolutely, I think I agree with Matt. It’s about getting the message out, and particularly to the city fold. I think the BCCM has started to do that in spades. I still find it interesting that there’s a lot of city people don’t really get it, and they don’t really understand it. I think if they did understand more they would look to support cooperatives even further. I think that education process has to continue for the better of our organisations, and as Matt’s saying too, we’ve got a part to play in that, and we do that through the Cooperatives Alliance as well.
Pete Lewis:
Michael, obviously you wear it very proudly in your company name. Norco, it’s right front and centre, and by what you’ve said it really drives everything you do.
Michael Hampson:
Absolutely, yeah. Our brand of Norco, we spend a lot of time talking to our consumers about what that really means, and what we do. That’s been invested over a long period of time, and I think now that our customers, and consumers are starting to understand exactly what that means considering now that we’re the fastest growing white milk brand in the country, which is fantastic.
Pete Lewis:
Good to hear. Look, as luck has it we will be hearing from Doriana in our next cooperative conversation profiling her innovative Sweeter Banana Cooperative. Now, Doriana’s got a really interesting story to tell about rising out of tough competition, dealing with cyclones, pioneering the lunchbox banana, and remaining profitable while working together. It’s a terrific story out of Carnarvon in Western Australia.
Pete Lewis:
To find out more about that episode, and to check out all the episodes, part of this series in cooperative conversations, go to conversations.coopfarming.coop to find our whole lineup of episodes, and remember the series is available now, and on demand, but tonight we’re just about out of time, but I do want to thank every member of our panel for the great involvement, and of course your questions as well. It worked out really well. I hope you’ve enjoyed it. Until we assemble again, that’s it for now. See you next time.
