Kraft Foods has opened the first stage of Australia’s largest food R&D facility, which is based on the innovation-hub model proposed by the Prime Minister’s Taskforce.
Co-located with Kraft’s Ringwood manufacturing facility in Victoria, the Kraft Foods Asia Pacific Confectionery Centre of Excellence will employ the largest R&D team in Australia, including more than 100 food scientists, technologists and graduates, who will focus on both Australian and Asian markets.
Stage one of the centre includes the centralising of Kraft’s R&D resources to the Ringwood site; a pilot plant featuring a range of chocolate testing and development equipment; a fully equipped test kitchen; and consumer insights facilities.
Stage two will incorporate a new building development to house chocolate fermentation technologies; an extension of Kraft's packaging technology that will include a virtual environment; SME collaboration and open innovation programs; and bespoke postgraduate courses in food innovation.
Rebecca Dee Bradbury, president of Kraft Foods in Australia and New Zealand, said the benefits of the facility – which is receiving funding from the Victorian government – would extend beyond Kraft Foods.
“We are creating an open innovation centre which will connect with food SMEs across Victoria to build capability across the industry,” she said. “We will be developing our next generation of food innovators with local universities and working with CSIRO on problems too big to solve alone.”
“In doing so, we aim to help create a new generation of Australian food entrepreneurs who will both understand and be able to access the 1.6 billion Asian middle-class consumers at our doorstep.”
Last year, the Prime Minister’s Taskforce, of which Dee Bradbury is the only food-industry representative, recommended that the government invests in an innovation hub and network in order to help industry take advantage of opportunities in the Asian market. It envisaged the hub facilitating a more open approach to R&D, connecting CSIRO, universities, and international centres of excellence.
A spokeswoman for Kraft told F&DB that the new centre of excellence is based on the model that Dee Bradbury supported at a national level, but with a chocolate and confectionery focus.
“We imagine that there will be many centres like this around the country, integrated through a national collaborative network,” she said.
Dee Bradbury has also spoken about the need for Australia to up its game to ensure it is competitive across the Asia-Pacific region.
Returning from an industry delegation tour of Asia-Pacific food hubs, including Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, Dee Bradbury claimed Australia is not viewed as a high-value food innovator and was instead seen as a critical supplier of food commodities, adding that “we need to act urgently”.
Victorian premier Ted Baillieu and Richard Dalla-Riva, minister for manufacturing, joined Dee Bradbury at the official opening of stage one of the facility last week.
Dee Bradbury said the facility would not have been possible without leadership from the Victorian government; however, Bailieu declined to reveal the extent of the government’s financial support, which comes from its industry support fund.
Gary Dawson, chief executive of the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), congratulated Kraft on the development.
“Innovation is of critical importance to Australia’s $110 billion food and grocery manufacturing industry,” Dawson said. “This important investment by one of the most significant global food manufacturing companies underlines Australia’s potential to become a major manufacturing hub for the Asian Century.
“Through the Centre of Excellence, Kraft aims to create a catalyst for the development of innovative products and processes for the Australian and Asian markets. Its ambition is to enhance collaboration between the food industry, research agencies and both large and small companies in the food manufacturing sector, unlocking the innovative capacity of Australia’s advanced food manufacturing sector.”
Left to right: Ted Baillieu; Richard Dalla-Riva; Heidi Victoria; Rebecca Dee-Bradbury.
Left to right: Ted Baillieu; Heidi Victoria; Rebecca Dee-Bradbury; Richard Dalla-Riva.
