WA farmers may soon be represented by a super body, made up of the presidents and chairs from all the assorted agricultural groups.
Last week the top players from 11 sectors met to discuss the challenges the industry was collectively up against.
Department of Agriculture and Food WA director general Rob Delane said while it was early days and a formal collaboration had not been finalised, he felt very positive about the meeting.
"Everyone was extremely keen to discuss the critical issues their industry was facing and how they planned to address these," Mr Delane said.
"They all agreed to share their priorities with each other and the aim is to get everyone working together to achieve as much as we can."
Mr Delane said that never before had representatives from each sector in the WA agricultural industry sat down to discuss how they could collaboratively move forward.
"One of the main priorities we all agreed upon was the need to change the perception of agriculture," Mr Delane said.
"Everyone recognised we need a more positive profile and we need to work with each sector as a whole to achieve this."
He said there had been a lot of talk about the increase in short-term pressures across the farm sector - particularly with regulatory costs, red tape and exchange rates.
According to Mr Delane, many of the various organisations had independently invested in both research and reports to gain further insight into their industry.
"It was good to determine who had what information so we can work through the issues a lot more effectively," he said.
WAFarmers president Dale Park said while it was taking people a little time to get used to the idea of working collaboratively, the aim of the meeting was positive.
"We had representatives from virtually all industries including vegetables, wine, horticulture, apples and pears, beef and mutton, as well as the Pastoralists and Graziers Association and Grains Institute of Western Australia," Mr Park said.
He said that from a grassroots level, people were saying there needed to be a common message to protect and promote the industry.
"Basically there's been a significant cost squeeze by the government and everyone is facing common problems," Mr Park said.
"I think we need to pull together and work out exactly what common needs have to be addressed."
Mr Delane said there was still a lot of uncertainly around the structure of the group, but given it had only met the one time, this was not a priority.
He said another meeting had been scheduled for November 14.
"At this meeting everyone will bring their list of priorities and we'll go from there," Mr Delane said.
