Australia: An update on the draft Strategic Investment Plan

The nursery industry’s input into where the research and development and marketing levy should be invested over the next five years is now being included in the draft Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). This will help direct funds to grow the profitability and sustainability of the nursery industry. It’s envisaged that the draft plan will be available for public comment in early January.

Hort Innovation has engaged Pat Abraham from Key-Link Solutions to work with industry and develop the R&D and marketing investment plan. Most recently, he facilitated the national SIP workshop, attended by more than 30 nursery industry levy payers and stakeholders, which identified a number of key investment themes.

These include:

Annual increase in the demand and sale for green life products and services
Better decision making through more accurate industry intelligence
Innovation to capture new opportunities
Protecting the Australian nursery industry assets from exotic, emerging and endemic pests and diseases
Improved productivity, profitability and professionalism through adoption of industry best practices
Better career development
A more engaged industry

To help put these theme areas in context, he worked with the nursery industry Strategic Investment Advisory Panel (SIAP) to envisage where the industry would potentially be in 20 years. This discussion identified that the nursery industry would ideally:

Be positioned as the key industry that provides the link between the benefits of green life and our everyday activities.
Be providing invaluable solutions to Australia’s environmental, social, health and well-being issues.
Have government recognition of the importance of green life and have regulated minimum areas of green life in urban areas.
Have the community’s understanding the benefits green life and value the industry’s products and services.
Be inclusive and have collaboration with other industries.
Be professional, profitable, innovative and an excellent industry to develop your career.

The industry is focused on creating a bright and exciting future. The final SIP will outline ways in which investment in R&D, and marketing, can help the industry to evolve and grow over the next few years. It will also guide the deliberations of the SIAP, when it’s considering which projects to fund.

Source: Your Levy at Work