Tony Abbott says he will do everything he can “humanly” do to ensure Australia’s food industry can “prosper and succeed”.
The Prime Minister told industry leaders at the Australian Food and Grocery Council forum yesterday “thousands” were looking to the food industry to “make their mark and their fortune”.
Australia’s food and grocery sector is worth around $114 billion a year, employs 300,000 and exports $27 billion worth of products annually.
Mr Abbott said food manufacturing was “a tough industry” which faced “the vagaries of weather, of markets, of policy”.
“But it’s a dynamic industry too. Your industry is a modern success story,” he said.
One of the Abbott Government’s significant decisions was to refuse an industry assistance package to SPC Ardmona earlier this year.