AmCham Industry Series: Agribusiness

AmCham Industry Series: Agribusiness
Australia has benefitted from the globalisation of food supply chains, the liberalisation of markets and access to consumers who are hungry for high-quality food products. But our reputation as a clean, sustainable and safe food producer sits outside our control. To ensure that our ‘made in Australia’ brand is not tarnished, we will need to take steps to fortify the integrity of our food industries with government, regulators, retailers, and producers all having a role to play. pastevent

AmCham Industry Series

From Paddock to Plate

 
Australia has benefitted from the globalisation of food supply chains, the liberalisation of markets and access to consumers who are hungry for high-quality food products. But our reputation as a clean, sustainable and safe food producer sits outside our control. To ensure that our ‘made in Australia’ brand is not tarnished, we will need to take steps to fortify the integrity of our food industries with government, regulators, retailers, and producers all having a role to play.

David McKay
Chief Operating Officer
Thomas Foods


David’s career in the meat processing and exporting industry spans in excess of 25 years. Before joining Thomas Foods International in 2009, David was the General Manager of a large Australian sheep & lamb processor Fletcher International Exports – with processing facilities in NSW and Western Australia. As a Director and the Chief Operating Officer of Thomas Foods – David has overseen the expansion and growth of the organisation, which now processes in excess of 125,000 lambs and 5,000 cattle each week at its processing sites, employing in excess of 3,000 staff in Australia and across various further processing facilities globally.

David has worked his way through the industry, combining his broad practical experience with under and post graduate degrees majoring in HR, Economics and Business Management. David’s achievements and passion for the industry were formally recognised in 2001 when he was named the Australian Meat Industry – “Young Achiever of the Year”. 

Thomas Foods International is Australia’s largest privately owned meat processing company with a proven track record for trading premium Lamb, Beef and Mutton products into the China market – as a result Thomas foods are considered the leaders in process efficiency and product quality.

Thomas Foods have recently embarked on an exciting new project, through the design and construction of a “state of the art” technically advanced multi species meat processing facility in South Australia. The design of this facility will create new standards for processing capacity, efficiency and product quality for Australian livestock processing.

With first stages of commissioning set for 2021 – Thomas Foods International will ensure that this new development continues to drive innovation and reliability across the Australian meat processing industry. 


Dr Paula Zito
Food Geographical Indications Consultant
Legal Practitioner (Intellectual Property & Commercial Law)
Associate Teacher in Law, Adelaide Law School, 
The University of Adelaide


Paula was conferred her Doctorate of Philosophy in Law in March 2018 from the University of Adelaide for her research on Geographical Indications: What is Their Worth? A Comparison of Geographical Indication Registrations Between Australia and Italy. Paula explores the worth of using food Geographical Indications on food products to make an origin claim in the context of a food Geographical Indication framework. She assesses the value of using a food Geographical Indication framework to protect the connection between Australian regional food and origin and to protect the assets that Australia has in Australia regional names as identifiers of authentic regionalfood products that have a clear and strong connection with Australian regions.  This assessment is made against a background of significant and original fieldwork carried out in Italy and South Australia. Paula has recommended a food GI framework be implemented in Australia that recognises and protects the connection between food and origin.

Paula is a food Geographical Indications Consultant advising in her research area and a legal practitioner in the areas of Intellectual Property and Commercial Law. In addition, Paula is an Associate Teacher in Law at the Adelaide Law School. She teaches in the subject areas of:
• Intellectual Property
• Contract Law
• Commercial Transactions
• Commercial Law I and II
• Foundations of Law
• International Law

Paula is the author of a series of articles that have recently been published in volumes 29/2 and 29/3 of Australian Intellectual Property Journal entitled ‘Australian Laws and Regulations on Regional branding on Food and Wine Labels’.

Justin Webb
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman
AgriWebb

Justin’s family history in livestock production inspired the foundation of AgriWebb, the world’s leading livestock and meat supply chain software. A serial entrepreneur in financial management, Justin founded, built and sold three Hedge Funds with successful exits to Macquarie Bank & Westpac. Justin previously Founded PacWealth Capital; a pioneering $4Bn asset advisory firm in the South Pacific servicing sovereign wealth funds and superannuation groups. Justin has also served as a Director and Co-Head of Retail Client Business in Australia for BlackRock, the world’s largest Asset Manager. Justin earned BA in Economics and Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and holds an MBA with distinction from Oxford University where he was the OBA Scholar.
AgriWebb is fundamentally transforming global beef & lamb production with farm management software that delivers profitability, food provenance and farm sustainability in the face of an impending global food crisis. Focused on building software for livestock farmers, AgriWebb is Australia’s market leader and is rapidly expanding across the globe to the UK, Brazil and the USA. Founded in 2014, AgriWebb’s platform manages over 10 million animals across 35 million acres.

This Event is being facilitated by:

Craig Heraghty
Partner, PwC 
National Agribusiness Leader

Event Partners 

Invitation transferable: feel free to forward this invitation to anyone within your organisation or networks who you think might be interested in this event.

When
22/11/2019 11:45 AM - 2:00 PM
AUS Eastern Summer Time
Where
InterContinental North Terrace Adelaide, SA 5000 AUSTRALIA

Program

Friday, 22 November 2019

Description
Agribusiness
Time
11:45 AM - 2:00 PM
22/11/2019 11:45 AM

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