GRAINS Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) managing director Steve Jefferies has said Grain Australia, the group founded by his organisation to manage industry good issues, will help service what has been an under-resourced sector.
"Exactly how Grain Australia will work will be up to the new directors when they are elected but we certainly see opportunities in helping bolster resources," Dr Jefferies said.
"For example you see something like the Grains Industry Market Access Forum (GIMAF) which is a one man show dealing with some incredibly important trade access issues, it could be that if it came under the Grain Australia banner and the board thought more resources were needed they could be invested."
"This is not an isolated example, there is so much as an industry we can do together in a more consolidated fashion to get outcomes that are good for all, you look at bolstering education to exporters, information flow, there is so much to work on."
Dr Jefferies said the GRDC initially had a budget in the range of $2.5-3 million for Grain Australia but added this would be subject to change dependent on what the new organisation ends up doing.
"Once the new board does their strategy they may come to us with further proposals and we envisage they will also go out to the industry for both cash and in-kind contributions."
In terms of overall industry ability to fund this type of work he said a key advantage of Grain Australia was the back office savings it could generate.
He said it was likely the amalgamation of many of the smaller commodity-based providers of industry good functions could provide savings.
"At present there is a lot of duplication and there is room for consolidation efficiencies with the funds used for more targeted activities."
"Take grain classification for instance, there's Wheat Quality Australia, GIWA (the Grains Industry Group of Western Australia) and Barley Australia all in that space."
Ron Storey, chairman of Pulse Australia, one of the organisations that could fall under the Grain Australia, said the development was something his group welcomed.
He assured Pulse Australia members the work his group did would not cease.
"It may be that Pulse Australia as a legal entity does wind up, but our feedback is that there is value in the Pulse Australia brand and we would look to maintain that and the work we have done if we became part of Grain Australia," Mr Storey said.
"Overall we see this as a means for better resourcing of those industry good activities and creating more value for the grains sector given parts of these functions have been quite fragmented, small and under resourced."
Dr Jefferies said the announcement of the Grain Australia model marked the resolution of four years of work from the grains industry.
"We have been working with GrainGrowers, Grain Producers Australia and Grain Trade Australia as part of a steering committee to get this off the ground and there was a lot of work before that."
He said the decision whether to join Grain Australia would be up to individual groups.
"There are two no-brainers, WQA and GIMAF but beyond that the groups will negotiate with the new board so I wouldn't comment as to who could possibly join."
In terms of the development of Grain Australia Dr Jefferies said applications for directors' positions were currently open.
Once the directors were elected he said they would search for a chief executive.
"We'd expect the company to be well and truly up and running by the end of the year."
Dr Jefferies said the board would decide where it would be based, but added it would be possible different segments of the business were based in different parts of the country.
He said he did not see GRDC's funding of Grain Australia as a big shift, in spite of it being a move away from classic research and development.
"We've been funding wheat classification since deregulation and GIMAF for a long time so it is not all necessarily a new space for us."