MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Australian grain industry leaders celebrated three straight years of record production and “positive industry momentum” at the Australian Grains Industry Conference, held July 26-27 in Melbourne.

The event, which was themed “Challenging Success, Maintaining Momentum,” attracted several hundred delegates and included presentations by local and international experts.

“Delegates joined AGIC Australia from across the globe, and enthusiastically connected, networked and discussed the topical issues with colleagues, potential customers and suppliers,” said Andrew Goyder, chair of Grain Trade Australia (GTA). “The opportunity to connect and communicate as an industry is so important in developing industry leadership and culture. This is how resilience and sustainability within an industry is fostered and achieved.”

Goyder noted that the “complexities of trade and the sheer volumes handled through the Australian supply chain in recent seasons has placed pressures on the grain industry.”

“People have been working incredibly hard in keeping the supply chain moving at maximum capacity, so it’s great to be able to come together as an industry and to recognize the success of organizations and the people who have made it all happen,” he said.  “The successive growth in the grain sector has created a strong platform for continued growth and investment to meet the increasing domestic and global food security needs.” 

Speakers discussed how Australia is well positioned from an environmental, governance and sustainability perspective and is ably supported by industry, science-based and government frameworks that provide confidence and ensure customers’ demands and expectations of a safe product and an orderly and trusted supply chain. 

ESG and its impact on agriculture and trade was of interest to delegates and commented on by numerous speakers. Su McCluskey, special representative, Australian Agriculture, noted that ESG “is being used by some countries as protectionist trade policy leading to pressure on our agricultural sector.” An expert panel discussed the actions occurring within Australia to understand emissions at the farm and post farm sectors.  Marketing of Australia’s ESG credentials to the global market is a challenge industry needs to tackle and win, the panelists said.

The impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Russia’s recent decision to pull out of the Black Sea grain deal and bomb Ukrainian grain assets was discussed at length during the conference. The Ukraine Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, joined the conference on the second day via a virtual link and shared the challenges for the Ukrainian farmers, following the Russian invasion.  He discussed the impacts on the market and the risk to farmers of planting crops with uncertain market access. 

He described the recent attacks as Putin’s “hunger games,” that are a systemic act to destabilize Ukrainian agriculture to the benefit of Russian grain production. While access to the market via land is possible, the freight cost makes this route non-sustainable, Myroshnychenko said.

Also addressing the impact of geopolitics on the global grain industry was Don Farrell, Minister for Trade and Tourism, who talked about how the relationship between diplomacy, politics and trade is becoming increasing complex resulting from global tensions and extreme climate conditions. Farrell said he was expecting the tariffs imposed by China on Australian Barley to be lifted soon.