Chapter 4.5
Agricultural Product Marketing Research Units
4.87 Mr Geoffrey Quinn of the University of New England suggested in
a submission to the inquiry that Agricultural Product Marketing Research Units (APMRUs) be
established within various Australian universities. These units would become:
- resource centres for market research and development; and
- centres to provide commercial consultancy services to “different
segments of specific agricultural product marketing”. [113]
Other roles of the units would be to:
- design mechanisms to ascertain what value-added agricultural based
products customers want;
- facilitate any “necessary changes to the production system by
working closely with industry to bring forth the product that best meets
the customers needs”; [114]
- communicate these findings to appropriate links in the marketing
chain in a clear concise manner; and
- work collaboratively with industry to carry out necessary research
and development in relation to value-adding activities.
4.88 Mr Quinn was of the view that the APMRUs would “alter the ethos
of agricultural production and marketing from having a commodity market
to a product market orientation.” [115]
4.89 In the view of Mr Quinn a primary aim of the APMRUs should be
the provision of opportunities to undergraduate and postgraduate students to learn in the
market place. The units would expose students to:
- overseas markets;
- working on overseas marketing projects; and
- familiarising themselves with key target markets. [116]
4.90 In the conclusion to his submission Mr Quinn stated that:
The aim of the Agricultural Product Marketing Research Units should
be to create a nucleus of highly skilled people who are able to apply
distinct and diverse talents to addressing the differing issues of our
various agricultural product markets, in both the domestic and international
markets, wherever they might be, as and whenever they arise. [117]
4.91 In evidence to the inquiry Mr Quinn suggested that some of the money
presently allocated to research and development by corporations be directed
to market development and the provision of education concerning export
markets. [118]During his evidence Mr Quinn stressed the
importance of knowing as much as possible about overseas markets. He told
the Committee:
If we are really going to trade in Asia as a viable trading nation,
we need to understand more about the Asian process of doing business.
One of the best ways of doing that is to educate our students, in part,
in those marketplaces. [119]
Conclusion and recommendation
4.92 The Committee is of the view that Agricultural Product
Marketing Units do offer the potential of making significant contributions to the
marketing of agricultural products and at the same time provide marketing skills to
students who take part in the activities of the units. There would be the potential of an
overlap in the activities by the units and other existing research bodies. However, the
Committee is confident that any overlap or conflict between the units and other bodies can
be overcome. Therefore the Committee recommends that as an initial step relevant
Commonwealth authorities consult with State authorities to ascertain how such units could
best be established, define what activities they might most profitably carry out, what
their relationships would be with existing research and marketing bodies and what
financial arrangements could be put in place to support them.
Footnotes
[113] Submission, Mr Geoffrey
Quinn, p. 12.
[114] Submission, Mr Geoffrey
Quinn, p. 22.
[115] Submission, Mr Geoffrey
Quinn, p. 12.
[116] Submission, Mr Geoffrey
Quinn, pp. 22, 23.
[117] Submission, Mr Geoffrey
Quinn, p. 28.
[118] Evidence, Mr Geoffrey Quinn,
p. 514.
[119] Evidence, Mr Geoffrey Quinn,
p. 507.