How Queensland Food and Agricultural businesses can thrive and innovate as part of the Global Food System

Join TEC members and their guests and hear from Queensland’s resident global experts and a our expert members as we discuss the opportunities and challenges that innovation and trends in the food system, in agriculture and supply chains impact on Queensland businesses.

This event gives you the opportunity to debate the challenges in conversation with TEC members from different groups and other business leaders in the food and agricultural sector. We will discuss the challenges and risks in maintaining our supply chain integrity and the specific opportunities presented to Australian and more specifically Queensland producers.

Speakers include Dr Chris Downs, Professor Sagadevan Mundree, Bruce McConnel and Food and Agriculture members of TEC, facilitated by Jon Lindsay, TEC Chair

Chris Downs; President Elect of IFT and previous member of TEC 35

Chris is General Manager for Crop and Food Science Queensland’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Previously Head of CSIRO’s Food Innovation program, Chris is President Elect and Board Chair at Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the global scientific forum for food professionals and technologists.

Chris brings global perspectives on the opportunity for the science of food to improve the global food system and, in his current role, he is in a unique position to share his insights as to how Queensland businesses in the food and agricultural sector can respond.

Sagadevan Mundree; Director, Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy at QUT

At QUT Saga Mundree is Director of the Centre for Agriculture and the Bioeconomy and also Professor and Director of The Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, where he specialises in developing commercially-suitable varieties of tropical pulse crops – such as chickpeas and mung beans, working with industry and government to develop nutritionally rich, fibre-dense, pulse-flour fortified products  including breads, pizza bases and snack foods.

Originally from South Africa, Saga was Chief Executive Officer of PlantBio, the South African National Innovation Centre for Plant Biotechnology. In 2007,  he was recruited to lead a Team responsible for the Queensland Primary Industries and Fisheries´ Investments in Research, Development and Extension in all the primary industries of Queensland.

Bruce McConnel; General Manager at TSBE Food Leaders Australia

Bruce is General Manager at TSBE Food Leaders Australia, based in Toowoomba.

Food Leaders Australia (FLA) is a sister entity of the Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, and exists to support the growth of food and agricultural businesses to allow them to capitalise on new market opportunities, innovation and export.

Bruce is a passionate agricultural advocate. Having been raised on the land, Bruce spent 11 years with NAB specialising in Agribusiness before moving to CBA. He joined TSBE in 2017.

Speakers will share a short overview and we will then lead a discussion in tables and with the panel on the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

The Megatrends

The Megatrends shaping Australia’s food and agriculture sector include Asian Growth, Global Politics, Planetary Risks and Disruptive Technologies and the innovations everywhere abound. In Queensland and other parts of Australia, we are seeing innovations in

• Processing and shelf-life enhancement

• Plant based protein foods

• Agriculture production and Agtech and

• Supply chain relationships

The Current Pressures

Queensland and Australian Food and Agriculture businesses re experiencing very specific and acute issues including

• labour shortage cause by employment and immigration policy

• Infrastructure and supply chain challenges

• International relations including tariff and non-tariff foreign government actions

• Impact of climate change including drought and flood mitigation

These issues will be processed in an informed and structured way as always with the TEC community. We encourage you to bring as a guest a business leader from your supply chain to inform the discussion.

 TEC members represent the cream of the Australian private sector, and in Queensland we are blessed to have several of the top private players in the Food and Agriculture sector as members. Among our membership are manufacturers, food processors, distributors, growers and exporters to most parts of the world.

To register yourself and guests please click here

TEC members are high-integrity business leaders from a diverse range of industries who meet monthly to support each other and address the challenges of leading in these increasingly uncertain times.

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