Strategic Investment Plan refresh

Update on the refresh process

Consultation on the refresh of the industry SIPs has now closed. The SIPs are in the process of being finalised and produced. They will be published on the Hort Innovation website in November this year and stakeholders will be notified via our established communications channels.

About Strategic Investment Plans

SIPs align with the second pillar of the Hort Innovation Strategy 2019-2023 which is to deliver the highest value R&D, marketing and trade investments across industries, now and into the future.

The SIPs also align with Hort Innovation’s performance principles under our Deed of Agreement with the Government by indicating how our investments will contribute to the profitability and sustainability of Australian horticulture.

The refreshed SIPs 2022-2026 will provide the roadmaps to guide Hort Innovation’s investment of levies and Australian Government contributions, ensuring investment decisions are aligned with industry priorities. The SIP lays the foundation for decision-making in levy investments and represents the balanced interest of the particular industry from which the levy is collected. The most important function of the SIPs is to make sure that levy investment decisions align with industry priorities.

The Strategic Investment Plan refresh process

During 2021, Hort Innovation has engaged with growers and industry stakeholders to develop a refreshed SIP for each levy-paying industry within the horticulture sector. Each refreshed SIP will lay the foundation for decision making in levy investments, representing a balanced view of stakeholders from within the industry, and will help Hort Innovation prioritise and implement relevant R&D, marketing and export needs over the next five years.

The refreshed SIPs will provide the investment roadmap for horticulture that will contribute to the sustainable growth of the sector. These plans have been built from the foundations of the current SIPs and will:

• Be harmonised across industries to identify opportunities for multi-industry investments across categories of supply, demand and extension to drive efficiencies with investment management
• Instill commercial focus, appropriate measurement, evaluation and foundational investments to return benefit costs of 4:1 across all funds
• Be informed through existing data, knowledge, regional stakeholder and grower networks establishing broad industry support and relevancy of investment opportunities
• Draw upon international linkages and networks to ensure alignment, investment currency and leverage to mitigate duplication and maximise collaborations
• Embed sustainability principles to demonstrate commitment to underpin sector growth of $20 billion by 2030.

Each SIP articulates how strategies contribute to outcomes and broader industry goals. The refreshed SIPs will instill a heightened degree of accountability across delivery partners in future investments.

Finally, to ensure consistency across all 37 levied industries, each SIP has four key outcome areas which are relevant to all industries:

1. Demand creation
2. Industry supply, productivity and sustainability
3. Extension and capability
4. Business insights.

About Annual Investment Plans

Whilst each industry’s refreshed SIP will provide the strategic oversight of investment over the next five years, its Annual Investment Plan (AIP) will detail how levy funds will be invested over a 12-month period. They will be published each year over the life of the SIP.

The AIPs for 2021/22 are currently being developed by Hort Innovation. The development is being informed by the SIP and industry consultation, and then discussed with each industry’s Strategic Investment Advisory Panel for feedback and prioritisation.

All investments will link to the industry’s SIP by addressing a minimum of one KPI against a strategy under one of the four outcomes.

Hort Innovation will continue to report on Fund Performance regularly, with more focus on reporting on outcomes and the impact of investments.