Sheep Strategic Plan

South Australian Sheep and Wool Industry Strategic Plan

The Wool & Fibre Industry Development Board in conjunction with the Meat Industry Development Board and a range of other industry stakeholders has launched a process for the development of a strategic plan for the future of South Australia's wool and sheepmeat industry over the next 10 years.

Growth - the opportunities

The purpose of the plan is to develop clear directions for the industry in the state over a medium to long term period. The industry in the state has experienced a period of decline in flock numbers due to a decade of low wool prices and recently through drought conditions, yet now has the opportunity of capitalising on exciting market and product developments. The state stands to miss out on these without a concerted focus on what is at stake and how barriers can be removed or reduced.

The core aim of the plan is to identify the potential for the business enterprises in the wool and lamb sectors of the industry to tap into these opportunities, and to strengthen the value chain in the state from flock to market.

A critical part of the planning process will be the development of a picture of the future industry in that 10 year time frame. That future picture or scenario will be based on the national and international context in which the industry operates, and the commercial outlook of the major players engaged in wool processing and fibre marketing, sheepmeat processing and marketing, and providers of inputs to the industry. The plan will be based on this picture and set realistic and achievable goals and targets for the industry in the state.

It is important that industry engages fully in this process, to ensure that the barriers and opportunities seen by individual participants are clearly recognised.

Whitehall Associates has been appointed to work with the industry to facilitate the development of this plan. Their experience in working across industries in the development of pragmatic business and industry plans will be important to the success of this process and the usefulness of the resulting plan to industry.

Using the plan

The plan will be used to help the overall industry focus on the key areas of industry development where investment is required in the future towards that long term picture of the future. It will aim to provide the plan package as a vital tool for decision-makers in industry, in enterprises along the supply chain, and Government. The role of Government is critical to industry in view of the range of factors which are influenced by various of its agencies in the state, which affect resource policy, environmental regulation and compliance and livestock industry policies.

The plan will allow the industry to clearly state:

  • the current value to the state
  • the future potential value to the state in incomes and jobs through growth in the volume and value of the sheepmeat and fibre value chains
  • the roadmap to future growth
  • the role that industry and government can play in achieving industry outcomes.

The plan will identify strategies for collective industry effort - combining appropriate stakeholders and participants in partnership where necessary. The plan will identify strategies that will address not only factors that affect the confidence of growth in the production sector, but also the means by which additional manufacturing and processing capacity can be attracted to the state.

Survey

A survey of industry participants will be used in the development of the plan, so as to understand the issues that people involved in the industry today see the medium to long term challenges facing the wool and lamb supply chains in the state.

This will be done in a number of ways - including:

  • focus group meetings of producers across the state
  • one-to-one meetings with key stakeholders; and
  • a written survey of producers.

The written survey - which will be sent to a number of individuals or available on PIRSA's website - asks people to consider where their farming enterprise might be in the future, and to identify specific limitations and/or advantages that will either hinder or aid that outcome.

One of the chief purposes of the work that the Board seeks out of this study is the measure of the effect that limitations have on the industry's potential, and to what extent those factors can be positively influenced on behalf of the sheep and wool industry.