STRATEGY 2031
The opportunity ahead for Australian horticulture
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Success does not come from chance. It comes from setting a clear ambition, maintaining focus and doing the work needed to deliver it.
Australian growers understand that better than most. They consistently produce some of the world’s best fruit, vegetables and nuts, despite operating in increasingly complex conditions.
We know growers are dealing with rising costs, labour constraints, biosecurity risks, climate pressures and global competition. At the same time, automation, artificial intelligence, better data and growing demand for premium Australian produce are opening possibilities that would have been difficult to imagine a decade ago.
Australian horticulture has a significant opportunity ahead. Capturing it will require us to continue adapting, bring the right people together and turn good ideas into practical outcomes that growers can use.
This thinking is at the heart of Hort Innovation’s new five-year plan, Strategy 2031.
Shaped through more than 1,000 engagements with growers and industry, Strategy 2031 reflects the collective priorities, challenges and opportunities that industry has told us matter most. It gives us a clear framework for focusing investment where it can make the greatest difference and advances our vision for a prosperous and sustainable Australian horticulture industry built on innovation.
Our task, together with our partners, is to help growers seize the opportunities ahead.
That means designing solutions with growers, testing them in real operating conditions and accelerating the adoption of technologies and practices proven to work. We want useful tools, knowledge and innovation to reach growers faster and make a real difference on farm.
This focus will help improve productivity and profitability, strengthen biosecurity preparedness and climate resilience, give growers better access to the data and knowledge they need to make informed decisions, and create greater value in domestic and international markets.
We are already seeing what this looks like in practice through investments that help growers improve productivity, manage risk, strengthen capability and adopt new technologies. Strategy 2031 sharpens that focus, connecting the investments we make more clearly with the outcomes growers and industry will need over the next five years.
Success will be measured by impact, and we have clear measures around those ambitions. By 2031, we are aiming for a five-to-one benefit-cost ratio from our investments and for 60 per cent of growers to report adopting proven innovation and technology. We are also supporting the ambition to double the value of Australian horticulture exports to $7 billion and you can read more about this export ambition here.
These are ambitious goals because the opportunities in front of Australian horticulture require ambition, focus and sustained effort.
No organisation can deliver these outcomes alone. Continued progress will depend on industry, researchers, delivery partners, investors and government working together around a shared agenda, with growers and for growers.
The best innovation emerges when practical experience, new thinking, research capability and investment come together. Hort Innovation’s role is to help create those conditions for success and focus investment on the priorities that matter most.
The opportunity ahead for Australian horticulture is significant. Realising it will be a shared task, and Hort Innovation is ready to play its part.
Brett Fifield, CEO
At Hort Innovation, everything we do is built on our vision to create a prosperous and sustainable Australian horticulture industry built on innovation.
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