Food and beverage industry of Australia is known for its supreme quality. In recent times, there have been lot of challenges and problems the industry encountered. The industry is trying to face the challenges and emerge. Credit to this resilience greatly goes to food ERP. Read the blog to know more…
Overview
Food and beverage industry is Australia’s largest manufacturing industry. It accounts nearly 32% of country’s total manufacturing turnover.
As per a research, revenue in the food market will amount to US$ 87.68 bn in 2023. The market is expected to grow annually by 4.16% (CAGR -2023-2027).
These figures seem fascinating, don’t they? Yet food and beverage industry in Australia is facing lot of threats and challenges.
Through this blog we will explore the challenges faced by the industry and how a food and beverage ERP software is helping industries to tackle these challenges and find solutions.
Challenges Faced by the Australian Food and Beverage Industry:
Health-conscious consumer
Consumers are becoming more health conscious. They are turning up more towards organic food, high -protein diet, vegan products etc.
According to the Association Australian Organic, approximately 65 per cent of Australians buy organic food. Along with this, they are in constant search of new taste.
On top of it, consumer today is very price sensitive. Where consumers are the biggest opportunity, they are the biggest challenge as well. Satisfying their needs and demands is not easy!
Stringent Regulations
Australian market is highly regulated. It is guarded by strict import and biosecurity regulations. BICON directs the import guidelines of around 20,000 products.
It directs which documents are to be submitted if BICON allowed product is to be imported. This increases business complexities.
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Food and Beverage labelling
There are strict food labelling norms to be followed by food and beverage manufacturers in Australia. The most important labels are:
- Country of Origin Label
- Ingredient Labelling of Foods
- Date Marking: Products can be labelled either by their ‘best-before’ or ‘use-by’ date
- Nutrition content and Health Claims
- Alcohol by volume
- Standard Drink Labelling
- Geographical Reference
- Health & Nutrition Content Claims
Along with so many labelling within the country, manufacturers must follow universal labelling as well. Ensuring correct labelling is a daunting task.
Supply chain disruption
Supply chain of food and beverage industry is very volatile. Moreover,with changing political situations of the world, and aftermath of pandemic, the supply chain has been disrupted very badly.
Internationally sourced ingredients and packaging material are taking longer time than usual. Likewise, transportation costs have skyrocketed, putting extra economic pressure on food and beverage manufacturers.
Compliance
Food and beverage industry touches every stratum of society. The difference between compliant and non-compliant food is not a simple mistake, it is life-threatening.
Therefore, adhering to stringent laws internally and globally is of utmost importance.
Following these norms and regulations religiously is good for brand image, health of the manufacturer’s pocket, and market share which will be tough to bridge otherwise.
Sustainability
Progress towards green production and the sustainable process has raised worry lines on the foreheads of food and beverage manufacturers.
Australia’s states and territories have either banned or planning to ban single-use plastic including cutlery, straws, stirrer, bowls, drinking cups etc by 2025.
Manufacturers will have to align their supply chain according to the sustainable strides, and the earlier they do it the better it will be for them.
Skill shortages
The food and beverage industry face the double-sided challenge – one, shortage of talent and second, attrition of existing talent.
After the pandemic, lot of workforces did not return to work and that created a huge gap in the workforce available vs required.
To retain the existing talent, manufacturers must involve incentives which is shrinking their hair-line profits further.
But the visuals are changing,
Food and beverage manufacturers realised that ERP for food and beverage industry has tremendous potential to solve many problems faced by the industry.
More and more manufacturers have realized that Food & beverage manufacturing ERP can help in combating the challenges related to managing critical business operations, managing inventory, meeting quality as well as compliance, cutting wastage plus losses, and streamlining supply chain.
An ERP can help food & beverage industry seeing change in form of:
Building robust supply chain
An ERP helps manufacturers building robust supply chain- a supply chain which is less sensitive to disruptions.
How? By bringing all its elements from planning to procurement through production to delivery under one platforms. This provides live feed and given a greater visibility into every part of the supply chain.
Equipping manufacturers to better identify problems or issues with their supply chain faster, and then to work to find solutions even more quickly.
Combating the workforce shortage
The best software for food and beverage industry allows to integrate technological advancement.
To combat manpower challenges, advanced technologies like robotics, use of AI have been incorporated.
These advancements, along with solving the human resource problems, increase efficiency and reduce errors.
Following compliances and regulation
ERP helps to comply with rules, laws, and regulations of not just Australia but all countries and universal standards. It helps in labelling as per the laws and practice.
Doing it manually is a very tedious and erroneous task. An ERP helps to avoid errors and make the product 100% compliant.
Manifesting Innovation
An ERP for food and beverage industry help in innovating new consumables according to consumers’ demands.
With increase in diet and health consciousness of consumers, the manufacturers are coming up with rich fibre, rich protein, rich calcium etc.
Kind of innovations that help balancing taste, health benefits and price.
Thanks to the amazing formulation and laboratory modules of food and beverage industry software, which allows manufacturers to do so.
Ensuring quality and food safety
Due to pandemic, consumers today are more concerned about the quality of food they consume. They want to know the whole journey of the consumable items, right from farm to fork.
In such a scenario quality, food safety and traceability play a major role.
An ERP for food and beverage industry help manufacturers to put quality checks at every stage, trace each inventory item along the supply chain and make sure that a clear visibility is maintained throughout, both backward and forward.
Synchronizing with the go-green mission
Due to green endeavour and planet safety, Australian food and beverage industry will replace many single use plastics with suitable alternative.
Doing this manually for each production is a tedious and tiresome task.
An ERP for food and beverage industry help replacing BOM (Bill of Material) item with suitable alternative without taking much pain and wasting time, just in few clicks.
This way the industry becomes ready for the foreseen change.
Final words
Food and beverage industry is fuel for any country. Robust and resilient industry will make a country self-reliant.
An efficient food and beverage ERP helps food and beverage industry to absorb shocks, encash opportunities and plan for future.
If you are a food and beverage manufacturer in Australia, and wish to deploy ERP, BatchMaster can help.
In more than 30 years, BatchMaster has helped numerous food and beverage manufacturers to sail through and book profits in storms of ups and downs.
To know more, contact us.