Optimising Market Engagement through Business Models (AV24003)
What is it all about?
The avocado industry is experiencing rapid growth due to increasing domestic demand and the gradual expansion of export markets. This growth brings significant opportunities to refine supply chain practices and enhance coordination among growers, buyers, and other key stakeholders. Ensuring the industry continues to meet the rising demand with quality, reliability, and competitiveness requires better cooperation and strategic alignment across the supply chain.
This project aims to explore ways to make the avocado market more transparent and informed, fostering consistent quality and supply while promoting shared benefits among all participants.
Challenge
As avocado demand grows in Australia and internationally, there is an opportunity to ensure that all parts of the value chain—growers, wholesalers, ripeners, marketers, and retailers—can respond efficiently to growing demand. Clear and well-coordinated supply chain practices can create greater predictability and confidence, allowing all stakeholders to make well-informed decisions, investments and strategies that support profitability and sustainability of the industry.
Response
This project will address the challenge by:
- Exploring legal structures: Identifying legal frameworks, including cooperatives and corporate law, that can encourage collaboration within the value chain, while complying with competition laws. This will allow all stakeholders to work together more effectively without compromising competitiveness.
- Understanding industry attitudes: Gathering insights from stakeholders about their views on cooperation and competition and identifying opportunities for improved communication and collaborative growth.
- Customising strategies: Recommending tailored strategies based on regional characteristics, seasonal conditions, demand fluctuations, and industry structures to maximise value creation and optimal competition/cooperation balance for industry.
- Providing practical solutions: Offering actionable guidance on how cooperation can be implemented within the current competitive market structure to benefit the entire value chain.
Benefit
The project will provide avocado growers and the industry with:
- A comprehensive understanding of the legal options available to foster collaboration without compromising competitiveness.
- Insights into how cooperation can enhance market predictability, improve profitability, and promote shared growth across the value chain.
- A deeper knowledge of stakeholder attitudes toward different forms of cooperative engagement with domestic and export markets while allowing room for the efficiencies that result from competition.
- Practical strategies that growers and other stakeholders can use to strengthen the industry’s overall market position while balancing individual and collective interests.
This project is a strategic levy investment in the Hort Innovation Avocado Fund