Data-driven Regional Development - Gippsland

The Challenge

Gippsland in Southeast Victoria is home to some of Australia's most arable and fertile soils. Its high levels of food and fibre production make it the biggest contributor to Gross Regional Production (GRP) in the state.

Dairy is the most established industry in Gippsland, with high-value horticultural commodities such as olives, garlic, saffron and truffles experiencing rapid growth in recent years.

These emerging industries have the potential to boost regional economic development by $210m and 480 jobs per annum by 2023 - a goal set by the Gippsland Regional Partnership (GRP) at their 2018 Regional Assembly.

However, poor data availability means these emerging industries have unclear or uncertain paths to expansion.

The Solution

This project, led by Agribusiness Gippsland and RMIT University, provided baseline data of food value chains across agriculture sectors in the region. These are supply chains that include various value-adding steps during different stages of production and distribution.

The team identified six key opportunities to develop and align the food and fibre sector into Gippsland’s long-term future.

They are:

• Deeper integration of "before farm gate" and "after farm gate" relationships within the supply chain
• Investment to develop a thriving workforce and SME sector
• Identify and understand where expertise and research innovation connects with the development and upgrading of short and long value chains
• Boost research capacity in the sector
• Deeper value chain analysis, using the success of the dairy industry as a case study, to recast the regional food innovation ecosystem
• Creation and delivery of a 'Gippsland Provenance' story

Outcomes

Final Report - November 2018: Data-driven regional development - Gippsland