Program Overview

Background and Long-Term Strategy

The total retail value of the Australian organics sector has continued to grow, and is now estimated to be greater than $620 million per annum. Organic fruit and vegetables are the most commonly purchased organic products, but other available commodities include beef, lamb, chicken meat and honey.

An important advance for the sector was achieved in late 2009, with the release by Standards Australia of the ‘Australian Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Products'. The Standard was developed with input form a range of industry stakeholders, and delivers a voluntary framework that can provide producers and consumers of products labelled as ‘organic' or ‘biodynamic' with increased surety about the manner in which those products have been produced.

The Program is currently in discussion with external supporters of R&D with a view to establishing a coherent multi-party program of cross-sectoral investment that can deliver the research inputs needed to support continued development of this diverse production sector.

Business Proposal for 2010-11

The 2010-11 financial year will be the final year of the current five-year plan. A cross-sectoral plan of investment is currently being explored as part of the review of the Program. On the basis of that review outcome, a recommendation will be made to the RIRDC Board as to whether a new five-year plan should be prepared, or whether the Program should be discontinued at the end of its current term.

Brief review of the Five-Year Plan Performance

The Program will be reviewed in the 2010 calendar year. On the basis of that review outcome, a recommendation will be made to the RIRDC Board as to whether a new five-year plan should be prepared, or whether the Program should be discontinued at the end of its current term. 

Key long-term strategies 

The key long-term strategy of the Organic Systems Five-Year R&D Plan is to deliver R&D to facilitate the organic industry's capacity to meet rapidly increasing demand, domestically and globally.

The Organic Industry R&D Program is driven by the following objectives in order of priority:

• Improve organic farming system performance
• Address supply chain and food safety issues and technical barriers
• Assess agro-ecological performance of organic farming systems

These objectives provide the boundaries for the Organic Systems R&D Program.