The Australian Food and Grocery Council’s (AFGC) sixth annual industry snapshot State of the Industry 2014 released in October 2014, showed there were signs of growth opportunities for the Australian food and beverage, grocery and fresh produce sector despite challenging economic conditions.

AFGC CEO Mr Gary Dawson said the State of the Industry 2014 highlighted strong growth in food and beverage exports and a slight lift in overall industry turnover, but employment levels still falling in Australia’s largest manufacturing sector.

“Another 2500 jobs disappeared from the food, beverage and grocery processing sector last year,” Mr Dawson said. “The sector still employs almost 300,000 Australians with a large proportion in regional and rural areas,” he said.

Mr Dawson said the data showed accelerating growth in exports in 2013-14 – across the sector up by more than 8 per cent.

“In food and beverage the export growth is even stronger with the two largest sub-sectors, meat and dairy, rising 24.5 per cent and 19 per cent respectively,” Mr Dawson said.

“These are impressive numbers and the AFGC report confirms that this is a sector worth backing. A sector with great potential to deliver jobs and growth in the future,” Mr Dawson said. “But clearly we need to grow the sector faster to generate a net increase in jobs,” he said.

Key facts from the State of the Industry 2014 report on the food, beverage and grocery sector, using the most up to date data from the ABS and other sources:

• Industry turnover $114 bn, up 0.9 per cent; 2012-13 data
• Direct employment 299,731, down 2,571; 2013-14 data
• 45 per cent of jobs are in rural and regional Australia; 2013-14 data
• Industry made up of 27,469 businesses;2013-14 data
• Industry value-add $31.3 bn; 2012-13 data
• R&D spend of $541.8 m per annum; 2011-12 data
• Total international trade $55.9 bn (up 7.3 per cent); 2013-14 data
• Food and beverage exports $21.9 bn (up 13.5 per cent). 2013-14 data

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