CSIRO National Protein Roadmap webinar

The global population will reach 9.8 billion by 2050, fuelling demand for protein. Australia can capitalise on this growing demand by capturing more of the value and margin of export market opportunities, and through this process strengthen Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability. The opportunities span multiple subsectors of food and agriculture, including traditional proteins, sustainable fisheries, plant based and alternative proteins, health and wellness, and targeted eating. According to recent work commissioned by the Food and Agribusiness Growth Centre – Capturing the Prize, opportunities in these subsectors could be worth $106 billion in value-added and create 143,000 jobs by 2030. Further, the recent launch of the Food and Beverage National Manufacturing Priority roadmap identified new and enhanced proteins as an important growth opportunity for the sector.

The past 18 months have seen increasing public and private sector interest in the development of a protein industry for Australia. Given the current nascent state of the local industry and the interdependencies of stakeholders looking to participate, the time is right to consider a national protein industry roadmap. This roadmap will be an implementation-focused action plan that provides the strategic guidance, particularly on the science and technology priorities and the level of investment required, to develop new protein value chains and access new protein markets for Australian producers. As an active participant across the protein value chain, CSIRO in partnership with industry, researchers, and government, is leading the development of this roadmap.