INDUSTRY WORKING TOGETHER FOR A UNITED VOICE
On Wednesday 3 May 2023, representatives of the organics industry gathered in Brisbane and online to establish a framework of trust, respect, understanding and appreciation of the diversity of roles and responsibility within the sector, under the banner of ‘Stronger Together’.
Through a positive and engaged discussion, the participants agreed to collaborate to create a united voice for the organics industry. The agreed immediate next steps are to:
- Establish a high-level secretariat resourced by AOL, NASAA and OIA. It will develop clear and concise terms of reference to progress the objectives.
- Identify a single contact person from each of the ten present industry bodies to be part of the ‘reference / working group’. The secretariat will communicate directly with the reference group.
A step-by-step approach was agreed to with the overall objective and focus to develop a united voice that defines a pathway to a single organic standard for Australia.
The group recognised that positive leadership, knowledge, passion, and good intent will drive forward a united voice for the organics sector.
REPRESENTATIVES:
| ACO Certification Ltd (ACO) | Wayne Shields & Rick McDougall |
| Australian Organic Limited (AOL) | Niki Ford, Mike Brown, Bernadette Favis, Iain Scholes, Leo Watling, David Keens & Didi Lo |
| Bio Dynamic Research Institute (BDRI) | Peter Podolinsky, Sue Armstrong & Liz Louw |
| Certified Organic Biodynamic Western Australia (COBWA) | David McFall & Barb Howard |
| National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA) | Alex Mitchell, Tim Marshall, Mark Anderson & Kim Morgan |
| NASAA Certified Organic (NCO) | Phil Sutherland |
| Organic Consumers Association Australia (OCAA) | Simon Jones |
| Organic Food Chain (OFC) | Kari Martin & Robert Wallace |
| Organic Industries of Australia (OIA) | Dalene Wray, Jacqueline Williams, Ian James & Janie McClure |
| Southern Cross Certified (SXC) | Ben Copeman |
RELEASE OF 2023 AUSTRALIAN ORGANIC MARKET REPORT
On 2nd of May Australian Organic Limited (AOL) released the 2023 Australian Organic Market Report. NASAA Organic and NCO assisted the data collection required to inform the collation of National statistics, and we are happy to provide you with a link and password so you can access the full report online.
Please find the link and passcode below:
LINK: https://www.dropbox.com/s/w5i7906sy385wdp/AOMR_2023_NAS.pdf
PASSWORD TO OPEN: NAS194v6
The report has clearly noted the sectors’ contribution with:
Over 53 million hectares under certified organic management with our certified operators now managing 70% of the global agriculture area under organic certification.
- Organic agricultural production now representing 12.4% of total Australian agricultural land.
- The sector contributed $851M in direct value to the economy with flow on contribution of more than $2.6B.
- The industry contributed 12,500 full-time equivalents and representing 0.04% of GDP.
I would encourage you all to have a look at the report, and we hope that further specific data on commodity basis will be available over the next few months.