SA’s regions need to reinvent themselves through business innovation and entrepreneurial culture to ensure a prosperous future.
That was the message from the 2016 Regional Summit in Mount Gambier last week, hosted by PIRSA and the Department of State Development, in conjunction with SA’s three universities.
University of Adelaide academic Noel Lindsay says it is possible to foster entrepreneurs by encouraging people to see opportunities with the resources available and linking businesses.
“Those start-up businesses that are more entrepreneurial tend to outperform others with more employment and money being spent, but they make up less than 10 per cent of businesses,” he said.
The university worked with Innisfail in Qld, when its economy stalled after the collapse of sugar prices.
From the uni’s business incubator and accelerator programs have come new ventures including ecotourism, tea plantations, exotic fruits and crocodile farming.
It is now working with the community of Chalons-en-Champagne, near Paris in France, which lost 1800 jobs recently with a military regiment decommissioned.
Professor Lindsay said these programs could be replicated in regional SA.
Balco managing director Malcolm May encouraged businesses to “believe in what they are doing and never give up”.
Mr May highlighted the growth of the hay exporter in the past 15 years and diversification into land transport terminal through Bowmans International.
Balco has a $100 million turnover – $80m in hay and $20m in rail – and is growing.
The throughput of their three hay plants in SA and WA is 175,000 tonnes, but their five-year plan is to lift this to 250,000t.
“SA is ripe for more hay plants,” he said. “Fodder is another alternative for farmers and it really does help in frost-prone areas to have another option.”
In seven years, Balco has become 35pc of China’s hay market and has started sending hay into Indonesia and Vietnam. Mr May sees further markets opening up in India and Middle East.
He said adding ingredients to hay was a great way forward.
“In Japan in the early 90s they would pick up hay on a push bike,” he said. “But we are selling to dairies in China with 150,000-200,000 cows so they prescription feed their stock, so for us to put barley or anything in this hay at a prescribed amount is the next thing.”
Mr May also sees huge potential for making their 600-hectare site near Balaklava into a major Mid North intermodal hub.
“What we need to do is have a vision of what the future will look like for your community, your state and your country,” he said.
