27 FEBRUARY 2025: Invited to join a statewide think tank into the next 25 years of Queensland agriculture, our CEO Anthony Lee (below) had a chance to chat with minister Tony Perrett yesterday.
“He expressed his support for our campaign to boost food and fibre education across all levels of Australian schools,” Anthony said. “Across this state and throughout this nation, we need ag-literate students to help grow, innovate and evolve our most vital industry.
“Excitingly all of agriculture’s Research and Developments Corporations have collectively put money towards the development of a national food and fibre education strategy, so stay tuned for the mid-year outcome of that piece of work,” he said.
Growing the industry was top-of-mind as the minister launched the day-long think tank in Brisbane – the largest gathering of primary industry participants in a decade.
Minister Perrett said the blueprint created by the forum would help achieve $30bn in gross value of Queensland agricultural production by 2030, in addition to short-, mid- and long-term objectives stretching out to 2050.
“I don’t want this to be a dust-collector in the archives of Government files,” he said.
The need for speed was echoed by DPI Director-General Graeme Bolton, who noted that the department was committed to boosting Queensland’s agricultural growth from its current level of 3% annually to between 8% and 10% over the next five years. “We don’t have the luxury of time,” he said. “We need to move fast.”
The blueprint will be broken down into a series of five-year action plans which will be circulated for community consultation.