| Project
Title: |
Supply
chain management, strategy and industry development for the commercial
bamboo industry |
| RIRDC
Project No.: |
UQ-87A |
| Researcher: |
Associate Professor
Ray Collins and Steven Keilar |
| Organisation: |
The University
of Queensland, School of Natural and Rural Systems Management |
| Phone: |
(07) 5460 1328 |
| Fax: |
(07) 5460 1324x |
| Email: |
rcollins@uqg.uq.edu.au |
| Objectives |
The
primary purpose of this research is to study how supply chain management
principles can contribute to the development of a successful fresh bamboo
shoot industry in Australia. |
| Background |
Bamboo shoots
could become an important contributor to Australia’s minor vegetable production
and an important export commodity. The last decade has seen strongly increasing
interest in the growing of bamboo in Australia. Several industry pioneers
have researched and obtained bamboos from around the world and an industry
group, the ACBC (Australian Commercial Bamboo Corporation), has been founded
through the work of these pioneers.
Supply chain management has been implemented
in a wide range of agricultural industries around the world (Hughes and
Merton 1996; Fearne and Hughes 1999), but Mowat and Collins (2000) are
the only authors to have considered the role of supply chain management
in new and emerging horticultural industries.
Gifford et al. (1998 p. 8) identified
supply chain management as "an integrated approach that aims to satisfy
the expectations of consumers, through continual improvement of processes
and relationships that support that efficient development and flow of products
and services from producers to consumers". The use of supply chain management
in new horticultural industries could provide the same benefits as in established
industries.
In summary, new horticultural industries
can play a role in improving Australian horticulture’s overall performance,
including its international competitiveness. The bamboo industry is an
emerging horticultural industry with some potential. Supply chain management
has been highlighted as a means of improving competitiveness, but there
is a lack of understanding of how the application of its principles to
new industries can contribute to improving competitiveness. |
| Research |
This study
presents research into the contemporary development of the bamboo shoot
industry in Australia. It details strategic intervention in the development
of the Australian Commercial Bamboo Corporation between May 1999 and June
2002. The objective of this intervention was to work with a core group
of participants, using supply chain management principles, to address limitations
to the group’s development. Through supply chain management principles
this intervention influenced the group’s structure and culture and led
to the empowerment of the ACBC to take responsibility for managing its
own activities and gave the group’s members influence over their collective
future. The motivation behind this approach was to have the ACBC become
a role model for the wider bamboo industry.
The intervention process was grounded
in a framework for action based on the need to concurrently manage three
areas of new industry development: the development of a consumer orientation,
the development of cooperative relationships and the development of effective
information and communication systems. This framework, built on theoretical
and empirical perspectives, delivered supply chain principles to these
three areas of new industry development. Such a framework has never before
been reported in literature on developing new and emerging agricultural
industries.
The results from the application of
this framework to the ACBC demonstrate that the development of supply chain
management principles allowed three risks to new industry development to
be addressed: lack of accurate information, lack of a market orientation
and lack of strategic action and collective vision.
Strategic intervention combined with
action learning provided a vehicle for the application of the framework.
When applied in this way the supply chain management framework represents
an important advance in better understanding the strategic and operational
dimensions of new industry development.
Participatory observation and action
learning were the core research techniques. They were used to develop a
case study in which information pertaining to this strategic intervention
in the development of the Australian bamboo industry could be collected,
analysed and documented. The primary data source used in the study were
the fellow participants in the process. |
| Outcomes |
In 1998 a core
group of industry members started this process by forming the ACBC and
then obtaining the funding for this project. The success of this core group
over the three years of the intervention demonstrates that supply chain
management principles can provide an integrative framework for new industry
development. In 1999 the project began with a group of just over 40 growers
who were interested in developing the bamboo industry into a commercially
viable entity. The ACBC is now Australia’s largest bamboo grower group
comprising more than 90 members who between them command more than three
quarters of the industry’s plantings. For three years the ACBC has been
engaged in developing both domestic and export markets for bamboo shoots.
Through its domestic brand, ‘Cockatoo Bamboo’, it is now responsible for
the majority of domestic trade in high quality fresh bamboo shoots. The
ACBC now has an established, grower regulated HACCP based quality system
and is in a position to supply its export brand, ‘Kangaroo Bamboo’, to
international markets. The ACBC has investigated the potential of five
major export markets and is continuing to search for other markets.
The industry’s development is a number
of years ahead of where it might be if the ACBC had not set an example
for other industry members to follow and, due to the intervention practised
as part of this study, the bamboo industry is now in a better position
to address future issues than it would otherwise be. The ACBC is in a position
where it is capable of taking control of its own future and if it continues
on the course that has been set for it, the industry will also continue
to develop as it attempts to meet the benchmarks set for it by the ACBC. |
| Implications |
The findings
of this study impact on theory, policy and practice involving new horticultural
industries. This study of the Australian bamboo shoot industry during its
formative years demonstrates that supply chain management principles can
provide an integrative framework for new industry development. This is
a single case, so caution must accompany the interpretation of its results.
Despite this limitation the case contains valuable lessons for other industries
by providing theoretical insights into the phenomenon of new industry development.
Growers and investors in the Australian
bamboo industry can benefit from this study through the use of its findings
to assess their decision to grow bamboo species. Members and managers of
other emerging horticultural industries may also benefit from the lessons
the bamboo industry can provide. Lessons about the importance of reliable
information, marketing orientation, supply chain and group relationships
and action learning could all provide guidance for other new crop industries.
There are also implications for public
sector managers. Although I had attempted to disengage myself from the
ACBC at the end of three years I was still heavily involved in their day
to day activities. The volume and complexity of work that needs to be done
over the first years of new industry development requires intervention
of the type practised in this research to be implemented over a longer
time frame than three years. |
| Publications |
RIRDC publication
to be advised.
PhD Submitted; others planned but not
yet published. |
