‘Australia is moving from a mining boom to a dining boom’ James Tong
Every now and then a once in a lifetime opportunity comes along to reach an audience with your brand that never in your wildest dreams would you think possible
Selita trained by Bjorn Baker wins the Young Farming Champions Handicap at Royal Randwick. Never in my wildest dreams did I think a program I founded would be honoured in this way
Thanks to the generosity of Chinese media entrepreneur James Tong and the Australian Chinese Primary Industries Council (ACPIC) that lifetime highlight arose for both the National Farmers Federation and the Young Farming Champions through the opportunity to co-brand two, ACPIC-supported races to raise the profile of Australian agriculture.
It was a lifetime highlight in so many ways for Australian agriculture. The Inaugural Australian Chinese Festival of Racing and the Agri-Innovation Forum sponsored by the (ACPIC) was the launching pad for the highly innovative Producer to Consumer (P2C) trading cloud platform Agribaba. The platform aims to connect farmers, buyers and investors through a membership system. It provides services like logistics and brand management and finance and aims to leverage the best outcomes for Australian farmers and Chinese consumers from the China Australia Free Trade Agreement
It was an exciting day for me as not only did I have one of my team members playing an integral role in the innovation forum and the launch of the cloud trading platform we also had a race named after the Young Farming Champions program. See footnote
Young Farming Champion Geoff Brichnell launched the Agribaba cloud trading platform at the Agri-Innovation forum
The Hon Andrew Robb AO Minister for Trade and Investment spoke at the gala luncheon following the agri-innovation forum
The role of Ni Cow in fostering China Australia free trade relations will go down in history
Australian dairy products where certainly front of mind everywhere you looked on the smorgasboard
Going forward I am very excited about the concept. Young people in agriculture today are often entering the sector via a corporate career or with diverse and valuable skills sets that they have picked up through the various careers they have been involved in on their journey back to the farm. They’ve got entrepreneurial spirit, strong financial literacy skills and the will and drive to make a concept like this work for their businesses and Australian agriculture
On behalf of the Young Farming Champions program and the talented school behind Ni-Cow I would like to thank the ACPIC for providing us with this once in a lifetime opportunity to promote young Australians and Australian agriculture to the world
Footnote
This race was named in honour of the Young Farming Champions. No Research and Development Corporation or farmer levy funds were used to fund the prize money for the Young Farming Champions race
