Australia’s plant protein ingredient manufacturing industry stands at a decisive juncture. The building blocks of a globally competitive, value-adding industry are already in place: world-class agricultural inputs, a growing cohort of manufacturers, and mounting market traction across food, beverage, feed and other applications. 

Yet without catalytic leadership to align these efforts, Australia risks being outpaced by—and its future market share ceded to—countries with more assertive policy settings and integrated national strategies.  

This new report by Food Frontier establishes confidence in the industry’s growing maturity and gives evidence for the opportunities and challenges it faces, featuring new data and insights gleaned from consultations with leading manufacturers.  

Critically, it outlines the opportunity for Australian governments to play a pivotal role in uniting the value chain, de-risking investment, and activating the market conditions required for growth at scale.   

The report concludes with a pathway forward: strategic levers available to accelerate development of a robust plant protein ingredient industry at a national scale.  

We highlight the following five priorities, underscored by a series of detailed recommendations:

     1. Establish a national taskforce to deliver a fit-for-purpose strategy
     2. Drive demand generation and reduce adoption barriers
     3. Invest in shared R&D platforms and innovation infrastructure
     4. Scale domestic manufacturing capacity through strategic investment
     5. Build the workforce and regional supply chains for long-term growth  

With national leadership and coordinated implementation, Australia can realise the dual opportunity set out in this report: to build a premium, provenance-led ingredient industry across both wheat and emerging protein-rich crops, and to secure a leading role in the global shift toward diversified plant protein ingredients.  

Read the highlights summary for a quick snapshot of key industry data, challenges and our recommendations, or dive into the full report for 50+ pages of deep data and insights.

Share your details in the form on this page to access the summary and full report now.
Note, both downloads will open as new tabs.