Food Council
The Gascoyne Food Council is a producer driven group that is passionate about promoting our amazing regional produce, providing awareness that will encourage consumers to seek out and purchase our products as preferable to others. To achieve this, numerous marketing and promotional activities and events have been held since 2010. These include working with Chefs from the 2013 West Australia Good Food Guide to build an alliance and sell direct from Carnarvon to their menu; the hugely successful annual food industry Long Table Lunch as a part of the Gascoyne Food Festival, major food sponsor for the 2011 UnWined Event and supplying produce to WA food ambassador Don Hancey for VIP events, just to name a few.
The members of the Food Council come from the pastoral (rangelands beef and sheep), seafood (crabs, prawns, scallops and fish) and horticulture (diverse fruit and vegetable crops) industries in the region. We are currently updating our register of producers but you can find a list of producers and produce availability for fresh fruit and vegetables on the relevant pages of this website.
Recent analysis that the Food Council has undertaken shows that since 2010 Carnarvon produce and the Gascoyne brand is becoming more prominent with consumers seeking products. Perceptions Report Summary Nov 2012 is a review of the below ‘Supply chain interviews’ report and demonstrates that we are moving in the right direction towards our 5 year Gascoyne Food Plan. Additional information on the history of the Food Council is below or available by contacting the Executive Officer Doriana Mangili on 0400 867632 or admin@gascoynefood.com.au
The inception of the Gascoyne Food Council occurred after the Carnarvon Grower’s Association conducted an analysis of the supply chain in 2009 and, after a series of workshops discussing its findings, many local stakeholders saw the need for and the potential benefits and savings in taking a broader cooperative approach to common issues and collaborating on market development and marketing.
The supply chain studies are available in three parts:
- Analysis of Supply Chain – Gascoyne horticulture to market June 2009
- Marketing Case Study- Gascoyne horticulture to market July 2009
- Supply chain interviews on brand – Gascoyne horticulture to market October 2009
The Gascoyne Development Commission and Royalties for Regions has facilitated the formation of the Gascoyne Food Council through study and other early funding as well as project officer support and continues to be a key member of the Council.