On 4 May, CRC stakeholders met at the soon-to-be-completed Food Innovation Precinct Western Australia (the Precinct) in the Shire of Murray to sign lease agreements for core facilities within the precinct.

The National Protected Cropping map is expanding, with draft mapping of PC facilities for the Adelaide and Tasmanian growing regions now completed and published online, ready for peer review. 

A new CRC project pairs UNSW mapping expert Dr Hoon Han with Namoi Unlimited, a group of five Northern Rivers-area councils keen to boost agribusiness development in this rich agricultural region.

Project lead Ozgur Dedehayir’s presentation at the 2021 CRC Showcase outlined the key findings of the ‘Coffs Harbour food ecosystem’ project, which lays the foundation for development of a future food cluster in Coffs.

Terrific results from the UNSW project team regarding new processing protocols for high-grade Mg organics are enabling EcoMag to scale up rapidly to meet initial orders from major US clients including Walmart and CVS.

Relentless rain did little to dampen the spirits of the estimated 450 delegates, 40 virtual attendees, 60 exhibitors and large CRC-cohort contingent at this year’s PCA conference in Coffs Harbour.

Hear BeefLedger Chair Warwick Powell discuss the ‘Smart trade’ team’s blockchain-backed digital platform and its potential to streamline cross-border trade.

Research leads, PhDs and project collaborators from government and industry are among the CRC-affiliated presenters at this year’s PCA Conference.

The CRC’s ‘Smart trade hubs’ collaboration, involving QUT and SME BeefLedger, was one of just two finalists for ICT Research Project of the Year in the ACS’s 2022 Digital Disruptor Awards’.

Murdoch University scientists are using cutting-edge methods and equipment to profile the nutritional makeup of high-value produce from across Western Australia, including truffles, artichokes and olive oil.

Western Parkland City Authority has released its concept for a 24-hour, state-of-the-art Airfreight Interface at Western Sydney International Airport. Now it’s seeking stakeholder comment via an online survey open until 8 December.

The final report of the ‘Coffs food innovation ecosystem’ project proposes four pathways to help the region’s agrifood firms transition to a new state of production marked by greater output and higher-value products.

Protected cropping experts at Western Sydney University are embarking on a CRC project with new partner Qatar University to deliver novel fertigation solutions that optimise indoor crops.

In a project starting mid-February 2022, UNSW scientists will work with Sanitarium to develop protocols for optimising the firm’s Weet-Bix grain-drying process.

New South Wales’ peak agricultural association encourages members and non-members to contribute their views to a CRC project that aims to boost farmers’ contributions to state coffers – and their own hip pockets.

A just-commenced CRC project involving Murdoch University’s ANPC, WA DPIRD, global scientific equipment firm Bruker and SMEs across WA will develop unique chemical fingerprints to validate health claims, expanding markets for premium WA products.

Involving SME grower P’Petual and QUT robotics experts, this CRC project aims to automate not just pollination, but all sorts of indoor-grown crop-tending tasks. 

Horticulture Innovation Australia, University of New England’s AARSC, Protected Cropping Australia, NSW LLS and Future Food Systems CRC have teamed up to develop a high-tech tool to map Australia’s protected cropping facilities, thereby aiding biosecurity preparedness and natural disaster response efforts.

QUT and Smart Trade Networks have just launched the world’s first fully blockchain-enabled credentialled marketplace. In their next ‘Smart trade hubs’ project, just commenced under the CRC, they plan to extend it to other commodities and markets.

Mark Cardamis has graduated from making mini greenhouse prototypes to joining a collaborative university-industry project team as a CRC Industry PhD, exploring mobile sensing systems for remote monitoring of crops in advanced indoor greenhouse systems.

To attain its 30×30 goal, NSW Farmers needs the state’s primary producers to expand their contribution to the state’s coffers. So it’s teamed up with UNE researchers in a farmer-focused project that aims to identify obstacles to growth and find ways to overcome them.

In stage 2 of the Smart Trade Hubs program, QUT and SCP Capital will extend their blockchain-backed digital trading platform, developed for premium beef exports to China, to high-value fruits, wines and artisan liquor destined for markets across Asia.

Innovative Queensland developer HydroREC, a spinoff from CRC industry participant Smart Trade Networks, has become a Founding Partner in the Smart Energy Council and Hydrogen Australia’s Zero Carbon Certification Scheme.

This CRC report canvasses the latest developments in phenotyping for advanced protected cropping facilities. It assesses tools and tech used by commercial growers to monitor and manage crop inputs impacting attributes including growth, health and yield.

In stage 1 of this multi-year collaboration, two CRC partner universities, NT Government and three First Nations enterprises have joined forces to collect, analyse and develop protocols for the world’s first broadacre plantings of native wild rice in Northern Australia.

The ‘Tomato rhizobiome project’, designed to find ways to foster robust microbial colonies in the root zones of hydroponic greenhouse tomato plants, is proceeding well, with initial findings ‘very promising’, says industry partner Costa Group.

The first in a series of CRC-commissioned reports on this fast-growing horticultural sector investigates target crops and technologies for commercial protected cropping in Australian conditions.

In an initial trial in the UNSW-EcoMag project, chemical engineers at UNSW were able to produce very high-purity Mg citrate using their state-of-the-art spray dryer. It’s a first, successful step towards EcoMag’s goal of scaling up to commercial production using the new process.

A new CRC project is comparing two novel light-spectra-shifting films on energy-efficiency and crop productivity in greenhouse-grown lettuce.

Western Australian globe artichoke producer Mt Lindesay has teamed with researchers at Murdoch University in a project to validate key properties of their artichokes.

For UNSW Associate Professor and networked embedded sensor expert Wen Hu, automated farms supplying ‘smart cities’ with premium fresh food are the way of the future. And IoT systems are paving the way to this new, networked reality.

Appointed to the ‘Commercialising native rice project’ early in 2020, CRC PhD student and beneficial indigenous-species expert Gehan Abdelghany is working on the theoretical component of her doctorate from Egypt while she waits for travel bans to lift.

EcoMag Ltd, which turns Pilbara sea-salt waste streams into 99% pure magnesium compounds, is working with UNSW scientists to scale up production and, potentially, produce base ingredients for high-value foods, drugs and nutraceuticals.

Australia’s iconic health-food brand is working with UNSW food-technology experts to optimise the formulations and protocols for its dairy- and additive-free Barista milks so that they’re creamier, foamier, silkier and ‘stretchier’.

On 2 December 2020, the CRC hosted its first online Research Showcase, highlighting projects approved, in progress and completed under our three Research Programs (RPs) over the CRC’s first full year of operation.

QUT-based robotics engineer Dr Chris Lehnert specialises in solving commercial automation challenges, developing novel solutions for an array of real-world applications. Right now, he’s developing components for high-tech vertical farm modules in a CRC collaboration with Greenbio.

For this IT-pro-turned-UNE-microbiology post-grad, the chance to study the root microbiome of greenhouse-grown tomatoes with Costa Group under the CRC was one too good to refuse.

With support from Liverpool City Council, The George Institute for Global Health will extend its successful FoodSwitch platform to include food-service providers from the Liverpool area south-west of Sydney, helping event organisers make healthier food choices.

Hydroponic tomato grower Costa Group and scientists at UNE and WSU will explore microbial diversity in tomatoes’ root zones in a bid to find novel ways to combat disease in humid glasshouse environs.

The ‘IoT for indoor cropping’ project under the CRC’s Research Program 2 has commenced after a months-long delay due to COVID-19-related lab closures. Now, the first trials are underway at WSU’s newly opened experimental glasshouse facility, reports project lead and […]

To gain the edge in global markets, Australia needs to produce blueberries with superior quality and health benefits. This project will ascertain the production conditions needed to maximise key ‘nutraceutical’ traits in polytunnel-grown berries.

A four-year, multi-disciplinary project under the CRC’s Research Program 1 will help ‘prepare the ground’ for commercialising Australian native rice, at same time creating new opportunities for indigenous enterprise.

The Western Sydney Agrifood Mapping and Analytics project will contribute to the evidence base for specialised food industry clusters in the region.

A new CRC project involving Coffs Harbour City Council and researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) will construct a detailed overview of food production in the Coffs region of NSW and explore prospects for its growth through expanding output […]

BeefLedger and an interdisciplinary research team at QUT will work with food-buying groups across Australia and China to explore blockchain-based approaches to streamlining cross-border trade, in the initial proof-of-concept stage of a multi-stage Future Food Systems project that will develop the soft and hard digital infrastructure needed to support the growth of smart trade.

Inefficiencies in supply chains are exacerbated by disruptions to demand, such as the recent panic buying at supermarkets worldwide following COVID-19-related shutdown announcements. UNSW’s Professor Sami Kara explains how the ‘bullwhip effect’ typically resulting from sudden changes in demand impacts […]

Innovative Brisbane-based company Austgrains is working with pulse-crop experts at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and food scientists from universities across Australia to develop tasty pulse-based products with proven nutritional and prebiotic credentials. It is hoped the research will benefit […]