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Summary of full report
Principal Rsearcher Associae Professor Ray Collins
January 2005
RIRDC Publication No 05/022 RIRDC Project No UQ-87A
Executive Summary
In the early 1990s entrepreneurial
horticulturists realised the potential to develop a commercial bamboo industry
in Australia. Initial market investigations showed possible domestic
and international markets for Australian bamboo products and in 1998 industry
pioneers formed the Australian Commercial Bamboo Corporation (ACBC), a
representative industry body. The ACBC was a group of just over 40
bamboo growers who had a common interest in developing the commercial potential
of the bamboo industry.
The goal of the ACBC members to develop their industry was the catalyst for the research reported in this report. The group was enthusiastic but lacked the knowledge, experience and networks to create a commercial vehicle capable of marketing the anticipated significant volumes of bamboo shoots available in the future. This report presents research into the development of the bamboo shoot industry in Australia by detailing a strategic intervention into 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 constraints to the group’s commercial development.
The application of supply chain management principles to the ACBC influenced the group’s structure and culture and led to the empowerment of the group to take responsibility for managing its own activities. The motivation behind this approach was not only to aid the ACBC to address the limitations to its own development, but also to provide a role model for the wider bamboo industry, and perhaps other new horticultural industries.
The success of this core group (the ACBC) over the three years of the intervention demonstrates that supply chain management principles can provide an integrative framework for new industry development. 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 the three years of this intervention the ACBC was 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 (Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points) 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 intervention process
was grounded in a supply chain management framework adapted to the development
of new industries. The framework was based on the need to concurrently
manage three areas of new industry
development:
Results demonstrate that
the implementation of supply chain management principles allowed the ACBC
to address three major risks to new industry
development:
Action learning was the
basis of the intervention process and was used to empower the ACBC as a
group of individuals with a common purpose.
When taken as a conceptual
package, the supply chain management framework, applied using action learning
and strategic intervention techniques, represents an important advance
in better understanding both strategic and operational approaches to new
industry development in horticulture. Through participatory observation
and action learning the primary data sources used in this study were the
fellow participants in the process.
The case of the ACBC as presented
in this report cannot be used alone to develop generalisable theory, but
it does contain valuable lessons for other industries by providing both
practical and theoretical insights into new industry development. It also
provides guidance for future researchers interested in studying or influencing
the development of new crop industries which in turn may also help to identify
more general theoretical propositions relating to the application of supply
chain principles in new agricultural industries.
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