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CONTACT US

702-704 Murray Street
West Perth WA 6005

+61 8 9486 7515
finance@vegetableswa.com.au

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Photography by Craig Kinder

  • Home
    • About us
  • Covid-19 Resources
  • Labour
  • Benchmarking
    • Drive Profitability
    • Vegetable business process operating model
  • Business Extension HR IR
    • Human Resources and Industrial Relations
  • Resources
    • Member Services
    • Water Management
    • Soil Management
    • Crop Management
    • Business Management
    • Biosecurity
    • Vietnamese Resources
    • WA Grower Magazine
  • News
  • Contact
Legal

Focus: Manage all legal issues related to operating the business

Considerations:

  • What are my legal requirements?
  • What is my legal exposure/risk?
  • What are my insurance requirements

Typical Activities:

  • Select a legal supporting service
  • Select insurance agent and policy
  • Deal with legal services
IT & Tech

Focus: Effectively manage the IT infrastructure to Support the business execution

Considerations:

  • What technology does the business require?
  • What new tech is out there that can deliver efficiencies and cost savings?
  • Networking requirements

Typical Activities:

  • Maintain technology
  • Visit Trade shows
  • Ensure technology support
Compliance

Focus: Effectively manage the finances of the business

Considerations:

  • What QA system is required for the market I want to supply?
  • What are my compliance requirements? (e.g. Freshcare, SEDEX, etc.)

Typical Activities:

  • Maintain QA records & Certification
  • QA Audits
  • Employment Compliance
  • Water compliance
Financial Management

Focus: Effectively manage the finances of the business

Considerations:

  • Do I know my true costs of production?
  • Set budgets?
  • Tax Optimisation?
  • What are the key financial performance measures?
  • Financial Accountability within the business – who can spend what?

Typical Activities:

  • Set budgets
  • Financial analysis – inputs, use,
  • Benchmark
  • Tax returns
  • Bookkeeping
  • Accounting
  • Payment management
Purchasing

Focus: Cost effective purchasing of all key inputs

Considerations:

  • Inventory of all inputs – monthly, seasonally, annually
  • How do you make your purchasing decisions?
  • Stay with one provider or ‘shop around’/ mini tender?
  • Bulk purchase or Just in time?

Typical Activities:

  • Order key inputs – chemicals, fert, seed,
  • Tender process
  • Fixed costs items
  • Review costs periodically
Machinery maintenance

Focus: Effectively and efficiently maintain machinery to execute to maintain production

Considerations:

  • Lease or own?
  • When do I service? Service Plan
  • Who is managing repairs?
  • Onsite or off-site maintenance?
  • What spare pairs should I carry?
  • All associated costs

Typical Activities:

  • Machinery maintenance
  • Calibration
  • Staff training
Manage People

Focus: Effectively and efficiently manage people to execute the business

Considerations:

  • How many people do I really need? Cost Projection?
  • Direct contract v labour hire v Seasonal worker program?
  • Seasonal demand?
  • Do I pay myself or take drawings?
  • What skills do I need in employees?
  • Training requirements?
  • Selection criteria?
  • How do I retain staff?
  • How can I review the effectiveness of employee deployment?
Sell

Focus: Sell Crop

Considerations:

  • What are your sales channels and the costs involved in each?
  • How do you manage credit risk?

Typical Activities:

  • Negotiate price
  • Liaise with selling agent
Transport

Focus: Transportation of the crop to end market

Considerations:

  • What’s the best way to get your produce to market?
  • Can you justify/cost analysis of owning and running your own truck(s)?

Typical Activities:

  • Identify carrier / transport company
  • Transport to market
  • Sales inventory – consignment notice
Marketing

Focus: Marketing the crop for sale

Considerations:

  • What are the market options for your crop? (retail, wholesale market, direct to customer, processor, export)
  • What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
  • How do you promote your produce and brand?
  • Who is my competition and what scale are they growing to?
  • Gauge and investigate demand for product? And seasonal fluctuation across state?

Typical Activities:

  • Identify market opportunities
  • Promote produce
  • Market development
Process

Focus: Process the crops for the purpose sales

Considerations:

  • How much cost/value am I adding to the product?
  • What QA/food safety accreditation do I need for processing?
  • Should I process myself or can someone else do it for a similar cost
  • What format should I sell in? (loose, prepack, ready to eat, value added)

Typical Activities:

  • Process crops, or send to pack house
Crop care

Focus: Assist the Crop to Grow

Considerations:

  • Fertilizer application – fertigation, foliar spray, granular application
  • Chemical application
  • Pest and disease pressure on crop

Typical Activities:

  • Check crops
  • Maintain Chemical and Fert Records for Financial Mgt and QA purposes
  • Agronomy nutritional requirements
  • Pest and disease chemical resistance
Harvest

Focus: Harvest the Crop

Considerations:

  • Labour required
  • Machinery / equipment required
  • Packaging required
  • Post-harvest chemical application
  • Post-harvest storage

Typical Activities:

  • Harvest
  • Equipment registry
  • Maintain labour records
Planting

Focus: Plant the crop

Considerations:

  • Straight seeding or seedling transplant
  • Variety choice
  • Post-plant nutrition

Typical Activities:

  • Planting
  • Maintaining crop and input records
  • Crop assessment
  • Nutritional requirements
Prepare the ground

Focus: Ground preparation ahead of planting

Considerations:

  • Weed management
  • Pre-plant inputs
  • Soil health inputs
  • Nutritional inputs

Typical Activities:

  • Ploughing and general ground prep
  • Agronomy assistance
Annual growing plan

Focus: Growing plan for the year ahead that also includes the growing process that repeatedly delivers to quality

Considerations:

  • Supply / Demand Analysis
  • Crop yield/ demand / profitability analysis
  • Just because you can grow it, should you?
  • Crop / climate suitability
  • Crop and variety selection
  • Water access / suitability
  • Irrigation system suitability
  • Soil health and carbon content

Typical Activities:

  • Previous year analysis
  • Consumer demand research
  • Market research
  • Agronomy assessment
  • Hydrology assessment
  • Soil assessment
Manage Capital Assets

Focus: Manage the capital investment assets to provide the best returns to increase business wealth

Considerations:

  • Have I invested soundly?
  • Am I generating the greatest returns for my capital investment?
  • Have I increased my business wealth over time?
  • How do I plan for my business growing (ie more land, bigger machines, more processing capacity)

Typical Activities:

  • Land Acquisition
  • Land Improvement
  • Capital asset purchase (e.g. tractor, etc)
  • Capital asset disposal/replacement
  • Off farm investment
  • Plan requirements for expansion – growing and processing plant, equipment and land
Strategy and Plan

Focus: Set a clearly defined strategy and plan for the purpose of the business over the 3-, 5- & 10-year time horizon

Considerations:

  • What is the way of life that business needs to support?
  • What is the purpose of my farm business?
  • What’s the long-term plan for the farm?
  • Who will inherit the farm, if something happens?
  • How do we intend to achieve?
  • What type of finance/capital model business do we want to be?

Typical Activities:

  • Set up most effective business structure (family trust, company etc.)
  • Identify scale of production required to meet financial goals
  • Identify crop opportunity or niche (why do you decide to grow what you do and which method do you use – conventional, organic, protected cropping etc.)
  • Understand cost of operation and production
  • Put legal succession plan in place
External communications & stakeholders

Focus: Manage communications with external stakeholders that may impact the business

Considerations:

  • Who are all the external bodies that can impact my business, its operation and its performance?

Typical Activities:

  • Industry bodies: vegetablesWA, Ausveg
  • Local Government
  • Shire Council
  • Department of Water
  • Fellow growers
Land management, water & biosecurity

Focus: Actively manage the land and water to support the business’s longer-term plan

Considerations:

  • What land and water management issues and risks that could impact my business?
  • What is the value of managing the land, water and biosecurity impacts of my business? – short term and long-term basis
  • Are there any grants/assistance in place?

Typical Activities:

  • Cost/benefit analysis of land, water and biosecurity risks
  • Soil testing
  • Water testing
  • Agronomy assessments
  • Soil health inputs
  • Sustainability plan – longer term land, water plan and biodiversity
Business Reputation & Risk

Focus: Actively manage the reputation of the business and any risks to this

Considerations:

  • What is my brand and how do I protect it?
  • Do I need more than one brand (ie for export markets)?
  • What are the business and reputational risks that I am exposed to?
  • What would happen if an event damaged my reputation? (ie food safety, employment scandal etc.)
  • What industry or community activities could I undertake to promote or support the reputation of my business (sponsorship, school or community engagement etc.)
  • Are you known as a good employer?
  • Social licence
  • Leverage any ‘doing the right thing’ ness
  • Community engagement

Typical Activities:

  • Develop risk register
  • Create brand or brands
  • Choose appropriate business structure and ownership of business to protect from potential business risks
  • Code of conduct
Ask the Experts
Strategy And Plan

Focus: Set a clearly defined strategy and plan for the purpose of the business over the 3-, 5- & 10-year time horizon
Considerations:
– What is the way of life that business needs to support?
– What is the purpose of my farm business?
– What’s the long-term plan for the farm?
– Who will inherit the farm, if something happens?
– How do we intend to achieve?
– What type of finance/capital model business do we want to be?
Typical Activities:
– Set up most effective business structure (family trust, company etc.)
– Identify scale of production required to meet financial goals
– Identify crop opportunity or niche (why do you decide to grow what you do and which method do you use – conventional, organic, protected cropping etc.)
– Understand cost of operation and production
– Put legal succession plan in place

Profitable Vegetable Growing
Building Business Wealth
Effective Cost Management