ELDERS chief Malcolm Jackman has called for strategies to encourage a move back to agriculture to tap into the nation's food sector.
He said the Australian food sector was failing to achieve its potential, AdelaideNow reports.
Speaking at a public hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Australia's Food Processing Sector in Adelaide, he said the reasons included the supermarket duopoly, a chronic shortage of workers throughout the country and the high Australian dollar.
Mr Jackman said that everywhere he travels in Asia, he sees a burgeoning middle class and the desire to buy the food that Australia produces.
But while Indonesia imports $1.3 billion of fruit and vegetables a year, only $19 million of it comes from Australia, he said.
Mr Jackman said 800 agronomic people were being trained in Australia each year when the demand was for 5000.
Read more at AdelaideNow.
