Friday 13 August 2010

Growing the Queensland Pineapple Industry through Fresh Cuts and AIC TechClinics

How much more convenient would it be to serve pineapple as a fresh cut product, for example in schools or on planes? An opportunity was recently brought to the AIC that would enable Australia to follow on from a similar success with apples, and to develop a new, fresh cut market for pineapple.

The pineapple fresh cuts opportunity has the potential to provide a host of economic benefits through exporting and job creation opportunities, and health benefits by providing more convenient healthy food options for Australians.

In order to explore this opportunity further, the AIC first facilitated an R&D Forum in November 2009 on behalf of Queensland Government’s Department of Employment, Economic Development (DEEDI). The objective of an R&D Forum is to assemble and draw upon national expertise to properly frame a contemporary industry challenge or market opportunity, and to reach a shared understanding of the alternative solutions available.

Further to the R&D Forum’s findings, the AIC facilitated a TechClinic on behalf of DEEDI to determine if a consortium could be developed between pineapple growers, processors and marketing distribution systems to develop and sell fresh cut pineapple snacks in Australia and overseas. The key objective of a TechClinic is to identify and facilitate, as a group or sector, the necessary steps required to develop innovative solutions to satisfy a market need, and encourage interested parties to collaborate towards a solution.  

Such a TechClinic to investigate the development of the fresh cut pineapple market was held in March 2010 to drive the opportunity forward. A range of players from industry, government and the research sector attended.

Outcomes from the TechClinic included actions to; undertake market research to identify potential distribution channels and target market needs for the product, investigate funding sources available, and to prepare a health properties communication plan for fresh cut pineapple. The TechClinic also provided the opportunity for a consortium of growers to come together to establish a collaborative initiative committed to developing the pineapple freshcuts industry in Queensland .

Since the TechClinic was held, these actions have been progressed significantly and have resulted in Agri-Science Queensland (a service of DEEDI) being commissioned to undertake primary market research in order to gauge and evaluate a number of consumer metrics and perceptions related to fresh cut pineapple.

If you would like to find out more about AIC Tech Clinics please visit our website or contact us on (07) 3853 5225 or e-mail info@ausicom.com for further information.

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