FRESH from the news of its $17 million funding windfall from the Grains Research and Development Corporation, industry good body Grains Australia will set to work on a number of big projects.
Grains Australia chief executive Richard Simonaitis said the organisation was busy on a number of initiatives both locally and internationally, all with the goal of providing greater value to Australian grain growers.
Mr Simonaitis said a major focus would be working with our northern neighbours on an Indonesian feed grain market access and education initiative.
Indonesia is Australia's largest wheat customer most years and has burgeoning demand for feed grain, making it a good opportunity for Australian feed grain producers.
Further afield, Grains Australia is also looking to work with Brazil to educate Brazilian brewers on the benefits of Australian malt barley.
While it may seem a long way for barley to travel given Brazil's southern neighbour Argentina also producers barley, Australian barley officials have had success working with Mexican brewers, which have American barley immediately to their north.
Locally, Mr Simonaitis said Grains Australia would work on further improvement to the variety classification systems for wheat, barley and oats, while also working on the first ever pulse classification framework.
This framework is designed to open up value for the pulse sector by enabling Australian product to be differentiated in key export markets delivering greater returns for growers over the long-term.
Importantly, Mr Simonaitis said the introduction of a pulse classification system would provide an opportunity to improve product consistency and emphasis on the quality characteristics of Australian pulses that are sought after by consumers.
"The first phase of this work will be focused on an Australian lentil classification framework that can be used as a basis for other pulse crops, generating additional value from the initial investment," Mr Simonaitis said.