‘Growth through Innovation’ – South Australian Agrifood Industry

Background

The goal of this project was to identify drivers and barriers of growth through innovation in the South Australian Agrifood sector.

Innovation is a relative term and often used loosely to associate with breakthroughs in science and technology. It can be argued that sciences do not deliver innovation, they deliver ideas; and that innovation occurs when these ideas are transformed by the industry exploring opportunities to develop. What underpins innovation is the question of how do you keep moving forward? The answer is to find ways to develop opportunities. In that light we see innovation as a solution-seeking process. A need for ongoing interactions driven by the industry to understand and explore value adding opportunities. In South Australia, it is vital for the key players in the food and agribusiness industry to stay well connected and to act as a ‘hub’ of innovation by connecting industry players with opportunities. Therefore the aim of the project is to identify critical drivers, growth constraints and success factors of the South Australian food and agriculture industry. The resulting insights will inform the development of a strategic framework for growing the value of the South Australian food and agriculture industry through collaboration and co-innovation. Innovation in this context is understood to be value-adding to existing products, development of new markets and identifying opportunities for collaboration.

Project objectives

• Identify industry growth drivers, constraints, capacity and performance through the ‘state of industry’ online survey.
• Identify drivers and barriers to growth of past food industry award winners by conducting in-depth interviews with state food industry award winners.
• Using the sectoral systems of innovation framework to develop a ‘growth through innovation’ strategy based on findings from the survey and the personal interviews.