Media release: New data exchange to revolutionise Australian agrifood sector

Media Release

A consortium of leading agrifood stakeholders including Government, industry and research bodies today announced the establishment of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange to enable fluid collaboration up and down the whole supply chain.

With a vision to establish an open data platform controlled by users, the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange will act as a trusted and secure interconnected data highway for the exchange of vital information between organisations and systems within the agriculture and agribusiness supply chain.

Initiated by Integrity Systems Company and KPMG, and announcing the appointment of Independent Chairman, the Honourable Andrew Robb AO, the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange has received an initial $4 million funding from The Australian Government, Meat & Livestock Australia, Charles Sturt University, the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre (FIAL), Fisheries Research Development Corporation, the Victorian Government, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), The Western Australian Government and Australian Wool Innovation.

Additional supporters include The New South Wales Government, Cotton Research Development Corporation, AgriFutures, Australian Eggs, Elders Rural, Federation University, Grower Group Alliance, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility and the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation.

The Hon David Littleproud MP, Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia, said the Australian Government’s investment in the AgriFood Data Exchange directly aligns with the government’s Agricultural Innovation Agenda by establishing a next generation digital platform for our data.

“Market access for our products depends on trusted supply chains and trusted compliance and quality assurance data accompanying the products,” Minister Littleproud said.

“This project is another example of how the Australian Government is backing Australia’s agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries to access and grow export earnings as the industry strives to meet and exceed its $100 billion farmgate value target by 2030.”

A Steering Committee responsible for project governance has been established led by Independent Chairman, the Honourable Andrew Robb AO, and major supporters the Australian Government, Meat & Livestock Australia, Charles Sturt University and the Food & Agriculture Growth Centre (FIAL). KPMG serves as the Project Management Office.

Chairman of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange, the Honourable Andrew Robb AO says: “Data is the lifeblood of any industry. The Australian AgriFood Data Exchange is a nation building project that will support the growth and resilience of the Australian agrifood industry by building a secure and trusted framework for data to be shared across the sector. This will create transformational opportunities to innovate and supercharge Australian agriculture.”

Following industry consultation, prioritised use cases of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange include reducing the burden of regulatory compliance, identifying and anticipating biosecurity risks, benchmarking performance to inform decision making, and bringing traceability to the entire value chain. Further use cases will be considered as additional funding comes into the project.

An Advisory Council has also been established led by Fisheries Research Development Corporation and The Victorian Government,  supported by Working Groups and an Expert Panel consisting of producers, growers, logistics providers, manufacturers, retailers, researchers, regulators and other value chain representatives that will provide insights and feedback to help guide the design of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange.

Dr Jane Weatherley, CEO of Integrity Systems Company, a subsidiary of Meat & Livestock Australia says: “Integrity Systems is proud to have taken a leadership position to seed fund the initiative in collaboration with KPMG Australia. This funding enabled the initial phase of the project including extensive industry consultation to co-design a vision and validate support for, the establishment of an Australian AgriFood Data Exchange.”

“What became apparent throughout this process was the opportunity this presented to the whole of the Australian food and agriculture sector. We are now really delighted by the number of collaboration partners across government and industry that have come together with a shared vision to invest together to bring the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange to life,” she added.

Rick Willmott, Chief Operating Officer of Charles Sturt University says: ”By enabling agrifood industry data owners to efficiently direct and control what data they share and with whom, the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange will support users unlock value from their data, enabling fluid collaboration up and down the supply chain.”

Mirjana Prica, Managing Director of the Food and Agriculture Growth Centre (FIAL) adds, “An industry-wide data exchange is the critical infrastructure that will help the Australia’s food and beverage industry to enhance the quality and assurance of products, and provide opportunities for value differentiation against other leading agrifood exporting nations.”

Ben van Delden, Partner and Head of AgriFood Tech at KPMG Australia said, “Following the initiation of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange, the next phase will see the development of a comprehensive business case inclusive of independent risk assurance processes along with the development of a data governance framework and operating model. This will be informed by an experimentation process with technology vendors across each of the prioritised use cases.”

EDITORS NOTES

About the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange

The Australian AgriFood Data Exchange has a vision to create an interconnected data highway for Australia’s AgriFood value chain. It seeks to provide a digital platform that enables​:

• The permissioned exchange of data between AgriFood industry participants​
• Timely access to information that supports decision making for the AgriFood value chain​
• Release management capacity
• Standardisation and consistency of industry data assets​
• The capacity to adapt, incorporating new use cases for data exchange that deliver value and support resilience of AgriFood value chain participants ​
• Increased transparency of AgriFood industry data to support multiple use cases (e.g. regulatory compliance, collaboration between public & private data sets) ​

Supporters of the Australian AgriFood Data Exchange include The Australian Government, Meat & Livestock Australia, Charles Sturt University, Food & Agriculture Growth Centre (FIAL), The Victorian Government, Fisheries Rural Research & Development Corporation, The Western Australian Government, The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australian Wool Innovation, Agrifutures, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, Cotton Rural Research Development Corporation, Elders Rural, Federation University, Grower Group Alliance, Australian Eggs, The New South Wales Government and KPMG.