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ROADSHOW SA SPONSORED BY FOOD SA ADDRESSES COVID-19 The state’s peak food industry body discusses its main priorities amid the pandemic. T By Food South Australia CEO Catherine Sayer. he advent of COVID-19 has changed, and will continue to change, business and personal life for all of us. We’re all dealing with a different environment for business as we continue to adapt to and make sense of this new world. As the industry’s peak body in South Australia, we knew back in March that Food South Australia had to step up to do two things. Firstly, we had to provide a key point of access to information and support for the state’s food and beverage industry among the masses of communication being sent out. Secondly, we had to ensure key stakeholders, including state and federal governments, were (and are) kept fully informed of industry concerns and impacts on our sector as they emerge. We established a portal to enable food and beverage businesses quickly and easily to report on the impacts on their business as these were happening. We also hit the phones, checking in with our members to find out what was happening to their businesses and what they needed. This gave us the critical evidence needed to assist with developing strategies for immediate assistance, and in turn to help us develop strategies for recovery and support. We were pleased I was invited to participate on the South Australian Premier’s Response and Recovery Council. This has helped us advocate directly for the industry with the state government, based on the information we’ve gathered, and keeps us close to the most up-to-date information that we share with our members, and to the broader industry. In a highly regulated industry, confirming a COVID-19 specific protocol for food and beverage manufacturers was a top priority. The Australian Chicken Meat Federation had done some great work on this, and generously allowed us to base an industry-wide protocol on their work. Our role was to then liaise with the state government to have this formally recognised so that businesses could be confident in its use. We knew from our research and through our business growth programs that understanding the financial impacts and how to work through them was going to be the next key challenge for an industry representing such a large number of small businesses. In partnership with our corporate sponsor, Moore Stephens, we quickly developed a short guide to assessing and managing financial risks, including budget planning templates for the short term and recovery. Both this and the protocol are on our website. Our next priority was to answer the need for businesses 28 CONVENIENCE WORLD MAY/JUN, 2020 to reach out directly to consumers to offer online orders and home delivery, in order to support them to replace the foodservice channel business that had all but disappeared overnight. Food SA created the ‘Eat Local SA’ program back in 2012, doing our bit to drive the then new trend that is now a common consumer ethos, and this gave us access to a database of more than 20,000 subscribers and already- active social media channels for another new initiative: our Online Marketplace. We created custom directories on both the Food SA and Eat Local SA websites, and we’ve seen great engagement with consumers who are grappling with restrictions to their access to food and beverages, yet still trying to continue to support our local South Australian brands and businesses. We’ve now made the decision to offer our 2020 Food South Australia Summit on June 17 as a virtual conference. It’s a first for us, and we’re excited about the opportunity it gives us to reach a larger audience on a state and national level. We hope that by going virtual we’ll enable more members of our industry to soak up the advice of our speakers, who have been reviewing the impact of COVID-19 on their areas of expertise, so they can provide up-to-the-minute summaries. For further information on the Summit, go to www.foodsouthaustralia.com.au/events-calendar/food-south- australia-summit/ I also hope participating in our Summit, along with our other initiatives, will help motivate all of us in the industry to keep on through these tough times, and keep our focus firmly fixed on the future. Out of the adversity of the current situation, we all need to think about how to do things differently, and there are plenty of opportunities for us on that front. Industry associations are often a discretionary expense, but at times like this when we’re a central point of contact and influence, we know our members value their membership. “We established a portal to enable food and beverage businesses quickly and easily to report on the impacts on their business as these were happening.”