Value-add opportunities across Agribusiness

The ‘Assessment of Value-Add Opportunities Across the Northern Territory Agribusiness Sector’ final report (the report), has been developed as the first stage of implementation of the Territory Economic Reconstruction Commission (TERC) recommended action to:

‘undertake a comprehensive feasibility assessment of value add opportunities across the sector, including industry capabilities, options to incentivise Agribusiness processing, manufacturing and innovative technologies and alignment with national strategies’.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade, engaged consultants GHD to identify and evaluate opportunities to add value to Northern Territory agribusiness.

The report found that there is a potential path for the sector to double value by 2030, from $1.356 billion Gross Value of Production (GVP) in 2020 to $2.946 billion GVP in 2030, if all identified value-add opportunities are fully realised. This will mostly come from innovation and efficiencies within existing industries, such as lower input costs, higher production opportunities and capturing higher value markets, rather than new crops or products.

Streamlining processes for accessing land and water resources, the ongoing establishment of development-ready precincts, and targeted infrastructure investments, were identified as primary opportunities to attract more investment in the Northern Territory.

The report identified great potential in local processing such as cotton ginning, meat and seafood and horticultural waste, improved plant health treatment and biomass production. This could provide higher value local markets and overcome some of the transport and logistical issues, however, the report noted the challenges in attracting the necessary skills, capital and production, and being market competitive.

Workforce challenges as well as transport throughout the Territory, including the lack of access to direct transport linkages with overseas markets (especially, Asia) continue to remain a challenge which restricts and undermines potential investments in the Territory.

The project was overseen by a project Steering Committee, including representatives from relevant industry organisations and government agencies.  Consultation was undertaken with relevant industry and government stakeholders over 52 interviews. In excess of 150 value adding ideas were identified through the stakeholder engagement and literature reviews, sorted into a long-list of 110 opportunities and then shortlisted and aggregated to 57 distinct value-add opportunities.

Read the Assessment of Value-Add Opportunities Across the Northern Territory Agribusiness Sector final report PDF (2.1 MB).