AU: Nursery growers encouraged to help address data gaps

Calls are underway for a first of its kind survey of Australian nurseries, with growers being encouraged to participate to help benchmark the performance of nursery businesses and effectively position the industry for the future.

The survey is being managed by independent research agency, Down to Earth Research, in partnership with ACIL Allen Consulting, Nursery & Garden Industry Australia (NGIA) and Hort Innovation.

Strategic oversight of the project is provided by a steering committee made up of key project partners and nursery industry levy payers.

Officially known as Nursery Industry Statistics & Research (NY16004), it seeks to address the current data gaps in the industry and to provide a tool which can help businesses benchmark themselves against others, anonymously and confidentially.

It’s an ambitious task, aiming to collect meaningful data from approximately 300 nurseries across the country.

Many nurseries across Australia have already started to provide data points for the project including annual figures relating to business profitability and productivity, together with staff and social statistics.

A number of calls to nurseries are yet to be made and those receiving the request for data are strongly encouraged to participate to ensure the project encompasses a large enough sample size to make it of real benefit for all involved.

The project seeks to provide more reliable data than what has been collected in the past: helping to address concerns that industry’s contribution, employment and size has often been underestimated.

Growers are reminded that any information they provide is under the strictest confidence and will not be made available to peers or organisations. All data will be aggregated with other businesses, and presented as an overview of the industry.

The project hopes to deliver a raft of national and state insights in areas ranging from annual turnover right through to staff wages

It’s anticipated these figures will help industry leverage opportunities at the federal level as well as enabling growers to compare themselves against others as a way to strive for continued improvement across all facets of the business.

The project has three key stages including a recently completed desk audit; the current data collection process; and the development of a specialised data tool later in the year.

For more information about the project, or how you can get involved, please contact NGIA on 02 8861 5100 or by emailing stats@ngia.com.au.

Source: Levy Communications

Publication date: Mon 17 Jul 2017