Food processing, beverages, wine and pharmaceuticals
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Food processing forms what is regarded as the nation’s largest manufacturing sector with turnover of $65.9 billion in 2002-03. Food processing and manufacturing consists of more than 7,800 firms or enterprises and employs almost 200,000 people. In addition to contributing a significant trade surplus every year, the sector is an important provider of jobs and business opportunities, particularly in rural, coastal and regional Australia.
Food Processing Industry Training Package FDF03
Sugar Milling Training Package SUG02
The sector is highly concentrated - 171 firms have more than 200 employees each, accounting for 76 per cent of turnover and 69 per cent of sector employment. These enterprises operate in a highly-competitive, low-profit-margin environment, where ownership is dominated by a number of multinational corporations with powerful brands.
Food processing-related sectors:
- Beverages - beer, aerated waters, fruit juice, soft drinks
- Coffee and tea
- Confectionary
- Dairy processing
- Edible oils and fats
- Egg processing
- Flour and stock feed milling
- Fruit and vegetable processing
- General foods
- Honey processing
- Ice processing
- Baking - retail, plant, pastry, biscuits and cake
- Pet food
- Pharmaceutical manufacturing
- Poultry
Wine industry
The wine industry is a dynamic sub-set of the agri-food industry and it makes a substantial contribution to Australia’s export and economic growth. In 2003-04, Australia had 1,899 wineries and 7,957 vineyards. The value of wine production exceeded $4.4 billion with exports of more than $2.4 billion. The success of the wine industry provides a model for other agri-food industries, particularly with market positioning for innovation and export.
Pharmaceutical manufacturing
The pharmaceutical industry is another significant contributor to employment and GDP for Australia. This industry is vitally important for Australia in view of the growing reliance on legal pharmaceuticals by the Australian community. It is a highly-regulated industry requiring high-level technical and research and development skills.
Recent statistics
- Pharmaceutical Industry turned over $7 billion in 2000
- Around 135 separate firms are listed as suppliers to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- Employs up to 14,000 people
- Global market for drugs is large and expanding
Sugar cane
Cane farms are mostly family-owned and operated. They are located along the coastal fringe and are important to the regional, state and national economies through export earnings and job creation. The Sugar Cane Industry is concentrated in Queensland with about 5 per cent of national production coming from NSW. The bulk of production is exported, earning in the order of a billion dollars each year.
The sugar milling process takes sugar cane and processes it to produce raw sugar. This is the feedstock for the refining process. The two main by-products of milling are molasses and fibre. Molasses are used in cattle feed and in fermentation processes: fibre is used for power generation, including meeting site energy requirements through the use of bagasse to fire boilers.
The industry is highly seasonal in nature. The milling season typically occupies up to half the year. For the remainder work is undertaken to prepare, plan, construct and maintain rail, plant and equipment. This work pattern creates a unique requirement for a hybrid qualification capable of reflecting the flexible combinations of competencies needed.
While its primary output is raw sugar, the industry’s future could be increasingly shaped by its potential as a renewable energy resource supplier through its production of molasses that could be distilled into fuels and fibre that is primarily used to generate electricity.
Activities in the sugar milling industry can be categorised into three broad activity streams:
Sugar processing: covers milling operations from the extraction station or milling train through all processing stages to produce the milled product. This grouping includes boiler, turbines and powerhouse operation and laboratory sampling and testing.
Transport: is most commonly rail and road. It includes traffic control, operation of weighbridge stations, yard control and cane receiving activities.
Services: relate primarily to rail construction and maintenance. It includes rigging, dogging, scaffolding, crane operation, warehousing and horticulture activities.