Commercialising Native Food through Research

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Commercialising Native Food throughResearch
Rob FletcherSchool of Agriculture and
HorticultureUniversity of Queensland Gatton
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Native food industries are proving difficult to
commercialise
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(No Transcript)
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Problems with all new rural industries

• Little truthful information
• High risk
• A long wait for profits
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How do we unearth truthful info?Research
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Research discovers truth. One should not be
distracted by facts or principles.
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Principles are things no-one subscribes to,
apart from the person who established them.
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Research is something everyone believes in,
apart from the researcher.
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In principle, there should be no differences
between principles and practice.
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In practice, there is.
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A few months research can often save a few days
in the library or a few hours on the telephone or
Internet.
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First PrincipleWe need to communicate with
others
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Illustrations from the Far Side by Gary Larson
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All those benefiting from a solution need to
participate in finding it
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Value/demand/ supply chain

• Producer
• Processor/packager
• Transporter
• Wholesaler/packager
• Retailer
• Consumer

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Native Food Industry Supply Chain

• Wild harvesters, Consultants,
  Educators, Growers, Agribusiness, Companies,
  Brokers, Processors, Manufacturers, Exporters,
  Wholesale/retail, Government, Biomedical
  companies, Consumers
  (Hotson)

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Commercial interest ?
Academic interest increases ?
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!!!!!!!!!today is cancelled!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!I do not like surprises!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!more info!!!!!!!
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!!!!!!!!!who says!!!!!!
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Insufficient info

• How much info is sufficient?

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Second PrincipleOur decisions will always have
to be made with insufficient info
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• Media reports
• Hunches
• Data
• Information
• Knowledge
• Wisdom

Accessibility increases ?
Value to you increases ?
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To solve a problem

• 1. Copy someone else
• 2. Trial error
• 3. Guidelines

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To solve a problem

• 1. Copy someone else

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New rural industries

• Those industries not previously pursued in an area

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To solve a problem

• 1. Copy someone else
• 2. Trial error
• 3. Guidelines

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To solve a problem

• Research Guidelines
• ?
• Research Trials (minimising errors)

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Research IMPACT
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Inquiring questions Map out a research plan
Perform an experiment Analyse the data
Contemplate the results Try again, with changes
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Whats your new rural industry?

• Bush tomato, Davidson plum, Desert quandong,
  Illawarra plum, Kakadu plum, Lemon aspen, Lemon
  myrtle, Mountain pepper, Muntries, Riberry,
  Warrigal greens, Wattleseed, Wild lime etc...

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Whats your new native food species?

• Solanum centrale, Davidsonia spp., Santalum
  acuminatum, Podocarpus elatus, Terminalia
  ferdinandiana, Acronychia acidula, Backhousia
  citriodora, Tasmannia lanceolata, Kunzea
  pomifera, Syzygium leuhmannii, Tetragonia
  tetragonoides, Acacia victoriae, Citrus spp.
  etc...

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Inquiring questions

• Which new industry? Risks? IP? Marketability of
  product? (Production)? Supply chain? Resources?
  Monitoring? Benchmarks? Review? Marketing?
  Processing? Field trials?

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Map out a research plan

• Compare the performance of things treated alike
  with that of things treated differently

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Perform an experiment

• Randomisation
• Replication

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Randomisation

• Every object of interest has an equal chance of
  being tested

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Replication

• Testing more than one object in the same way so
  that the performance of objects treated the same
  can be measured

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Analyse the data
Are observed differences real or due to chance?
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NMDLNMDL MStatisticsN DLNMDLNM
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97.3 of all statistics are made up
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50 of us are below average
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NM Statistics NM If our experiment was carried
out 100 times, would the result we obtained first
be observedJ 95 times?J 50 times?NL 5 times?
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Contemplate the results

• Let the results tell us whats going on

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Try again, with changes

• If we dont learn something from our past
  mistakes we are bound to repeat them

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Why are we involved?
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Financial difficulties in conventional farming
cannot be solved quickly with new rural industries
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Hobbies will usually cost us money
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If we produce something nobody wants to buy, how
do we make any money?
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The new industry may drive us crazy
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Is our learning interesting and relevant?
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What can we, as the members of a supply chain, do
for ourselves?
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We should only gamble what we can afford to lose
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Are we chasing windfall profits?
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What is our purpose?
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What is the purpose of our purpose?
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What is the purpose of the purpose of our purpose?
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We will never hit a target unless we aim at it
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Quality is the consumers description of what
they want
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Marketing satisfies consumers needs
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Why produce something nobody needs?
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Do we know our consumers needs?
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Can we sell the product?Can we get it to
market?Who will get in our way?Can we improve
our info?
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INTERNAL EXTERNAL
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INTERNAL EXTERNAL
M
M
M
M
M
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Production dominates producers minds
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New rural industries need expertise in
ProductionMarketing Business
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No one is expert in all three
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Everyone involved in a solution needs to
participate in finding it
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First PrincipleWe need to communicate with
others
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Thank You