THE OPPORTUNITY
Australians tend to rely on government to create national solutions.
The opportunity exists for a team to step up to:
- Champion Australia’s rural contribution to our wealth and quality of life.
- Restructure farm assets to reduce debt, empower farmers, ensure food security in Australia and take advantage of farm export opportunities to Asia.
- Expand and share learning about access to resources, finance and food distribution methods to support these opportunities.
- Support decisions based on long-term planning and not short-term expediency
We expect solutions to come in the form of securing new export contracts, forming cooperatives and supply chain innovations to increase efficiency, finding new avenues to supplement income and access to better management practices to improve farm viability – amongst others.
New farm financing options are emerging. New York City-based AgFunder, which started up late 2013, is offering both debt financing and equity offerings for individual and institutional investors to play in the ag space. AgFunder has $1 billion in more than 70 different deals in the pipeline to match with investors who want to gain equity in agricultural-related companies.
In tandem with increased viability and financial security comes the opportunity for a renewed focus on encouraging regional youth to pursue agricultural education – by bolstering current education programs and facilitating new ones, including professional programs in tertiary or secondary schools.
