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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-24 Daily Xml
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Food, Wine and Agribusiness Discussion Paper

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:20): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Will the minister update the council on the release of the Growth State—Food, Wine and Agribusiness Discussion Paper, aimed at accelerating growth in this crucial sector for South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:20): I thank the honourable member for his question and his ongoing interest in growing the state's economy. It is true that earlier this month the Minister for Primary Industries, the Hon. Tim Whetstone, and I released the Food, Wine and Agribusiness Discussion Paper, which kicks off the next stage of consultation on the priority sectors for our growth state plan. The Marshall Liberal government is dedicated to promoting industry growth by responding to industry needs and leveraging South Australia's competitive advantage to ultimately achieve 3 per cent annual GSP growth.

The priority sectors we are focusing on initially to drive this growth are energy and mining; creative industries; hi-tech; defence; space; health and medical industries; food, wine and agribusiness; and, of course, tourism and international education. As I previously outlined to the council, we recently released the industry-backed sector plans in the tourism and international education sectors, and this discussion paper begins the process of industry consultation with one of our key priority sectors.

In the creation of the discussion paper, the government consulted closely with the peak industry bodies, such as Primary Producers SA, Food SA and the South Australian Wine Industry Association, which sets the scene for the sector and its contribution to the South Australian economy. The paper covers food and beverage, field crops, meat and livestock, wine, seafood, horticulture and forestry sectors, and the current growth statistics and measures for each industry.

Last year, the food, wine and agribusiness sector generated $14.8 billion in revenue and directly contributed over $8 billion to our gross state product and produced over half the state's merchandise exports. We want to hear from industry about the opportunity to accelerate their growth and how the government can unlock investment and remove barriers. It is important our food, beverage and agribusiness industries have an input to help shape the future policy. This feedback will inform the development of an industry-owned sector plan for food, wine and agribusiness, and the government cannot and should not do this sort of work in isolation.

I urge everyone in this sector to read the discussion paper and provide feedback. It is essential for the final sector plan for food, wine and agribusiness that the industry's voice is behind it. Both PIRSA and my department are running a comprehensive series of meetings across the state to seek input into growing this vitally important sector.

Meetings will be held in the Barossa Valley, Bordertown, Clare, Kangaroo Island, Langhorne Creek, Loxton, McLaren Vale, Mount Gambier, Murray Bridge, Orroroo, Port Lincoln, Wudinna, Yorke Peninsula and Adelaide. Feedback via public meeting, online survey and email or written response is open until Friday 25 October this year, and the paper is available on the YourSAy website, and I urge everyone interested in growing this sector to take a look and provide their feedback.

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