BOSSES from at least 15 major agribusiness companies will meet in early March to look at forming a peak body to give a unified voice to the nation's diverse - and increasingly frustrated - farm sector businesses.
Agribusinesses ranging from big rural landholders to farm service and input suppliers and commodity processors are uneasy about Australia missing the chance to take full advantage of the booming global food trade.
While overseas investors are buying farmland and an array of Australian agricultural-related businesses as part of long term strategies to secure a firm foothold before the soft commodity rush hits overdrive, there are rising fears about the local ag sector being too fragmented to be a competitive force in the boom times.
Agribusiness had to overcome numerous big challenges if it was to remain globally competitive in the long-term, with processors especially at risk, said agribusiness leader at international business advisory firm KPMG, Phillip Napier.
An extensive study by KPMG said those challenges included Australia's own food security, stagnating production chain innovation and global competitiveness, poor transport infrastructure, an ageing and under-skilled workforce, energy pricing and water usage concerns.
Agribusiness was also under-represented at a government policy level and frequently unable to deliver cohesive public messages without being drowned out by other business sector noise or popular news stories, Mr Napier said.
"To make an impact it needs to unite with one voice to effectively engage with government on the international playing field," he said.
"Right now, the industry is shooting itself in the foot by not coming together on the big issues."
The food and agribusiness sector, worth $49 billion in gross farm production last financial year, was also hampered by a lack of significant federal policy development "at a time when our OECD peers have well-established plans" dealing with the food security and rising population growth competing for food.
"Australia is only now starting to consider a national position of what food production should look like by 2050."
Mr Napier said KPMG's "Expanding horizons" study, which involved six months of surveys and forums with agribusiness, prompted some of those at the discussion table to look at doing something to tackle the problem rather than complaining among themselves.
He said there were plenty of bright opportunities for the Australian farm business sector if it could unite and co-ordinate farm efficiency to lift production.
In the meantime, however, new competitors such as Mexico and South Africa were already producing equivalent food products at cheaper prices, while others such as Brazil, Argentina and Russia could be overtaking our global trading position within years.
"The only reason Australia is currently able to compete on an international stage is because of productivity gains largely as a result of previous investment in research and development," Mr Napier said.
Although wheat productivity had jumped from average yields of 1.2 tonnes a hectare from just four million hectares in the 1950s to 1.8t/ha grown on 22m ha in 2001, Australia now paid the price for cutting farm sector research since the mid-1970s.
Between 1994 and 2007 broadacre farm productivity slumped to just 0.4 per cent a year, compared to 2.2pc annually between 1953 and 1994.
"Industry and government need to collaborate financially and operationally on the research and development front to enable productivity gains that are essential to meet long-term global demand," Mr Napier said.
This included marketing, product development, packaging and supply chain innovations, and using foreign investment in Australian agriculture to help pay for the much-needed productivity and efficiency boosting initiatives.
However, while welcoming the proactive initiative being shown by corporate agribusiness leaders, the National Farmers Federation (NFF) has warned against establishing what may be seen as another splinter interest group in the sector.
President Jock Laurie said the NFF had deliberately reformed its constitution several years ago to embrace agribusiness membership and now had numerous corporate members to help push its whole sector agenda to government.
"You need the whole supply chain working together or else governments end up using the various opinions of different representative groups as an excuse to get very little achieved,” he said.
"We have the structures in place to represent the whole industry and would prefer we were supported in making them work rather than having another voice speaking for the industry."
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