AEGIC honoured for ‘thriving’ with digital customer engagement in the face of COVID-19 border closures

Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre has scooped a state award for overcoming the challenge of engaging with grain-buying customers despite COVID-19 border closures. AEGIC took out the Asian Engagement Award at the State’s premier leadership and business awards last Thursday night, beating three other finalists for the prize. The non-for-profit was recognised at WA Pinnacle Awards at Crown Perth and donated its $20,000 prize to Regional Men’s Health Initiative. In his acceptance speech, AEGIC CEO Richard Simonaitis said the organisation was “thriving” in the face of COVID-19 border closures, aided by “overwhelming support” from industry. He said leaders in WA’s $6 billion grains industry had helped develop material for AEGIC’s virtual engagement platforms which aimed to give important grain-buying customers confidence in supply. “It was a great opportunity to not only survive, but thrive and get great reach and penetration into our markets,” Mr Simonaitis said. “There was overwhelming support, really. “Customers through Asia and the Middle East, one of the key things they like to do annually is to come down and have a look at crops. “We had fantastic support from across the industry to say ‘yeah, we’d like to showcase our farmers, we’d like to showcase our export business’.” Formed in 2012, AEGIC is headquartered in Perth with a second office in Sydney and is funded by the Federal and WA Governments. The non-for-profit’s primary aim is to increase demand for Australian grain by engaging with customers. Its facilities include research laboratories, a pilot mill, pilot bakery and commercial analytical laboratories. AEGIC’s focused on its virtual crop inspections, targeted webinars and businesses meetings, and online technical support and information. The organisation run three virtual crop inspection videos per month focusing on Australian grain production, with subtitles in six languages. The videos were targeted at 10 Asian countries’ flour millers, brewers, maltsters, government agencies, traders and other stakeholders. Mr Simonaitis said the 10 markets targeted represented more than 15 million tonnes — worth $4.7 billion — a year. Customer reviews of the videos found 96 per cent of those surveyed would definitely or probably recommend the videos to a colleague or friend. AEGIC also hosted 22 grain quality webinars for customers in China, India, Vietnam Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and Taiwan. More webinars and meetings are planned for the rest of this year and next year, with input and collaboration from Australian industry stakeholders. In terms of technical support, AEGIC launched an Indonesian grains portal, feed grain information packs, noodle assessment technical instruction videos, and more. One of its biggest successes has been a 40-page bespoke guide on how to best mill whole grain flour with information on why Australian wheat is the best choice. Regional Men’s Health Initiative executive officer said Owen Catto some of the funding would be used to up-skill its seven staff through the Australian Institute of Management. He said the remainder would be used to help farmers, with discussions on how best to utilise it to take place in coming weeks. “We are really thankful to AEGIC and it is great to be recognised by our peers. We are a charity that does all of our work at the coal face,” Mr Catto said. “There is a nice synergy between our organisations because we work very closely with grain farmers.” For several years, the Pinnacle Awards have recognised organisations or individuals who excel in leadership, attracting more than 500 people to Crown Perth’s Grand Ballroom. Ten other categories saw WA organisations rewarded for business excellence, with the winners each receiving $20,000 to donate to charity. Recipients included Brida (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Award), Steel Blue (Corporate Social Responsibility Award), Sparkle Dental (Customer Service Award), WA Return Recycle Renew (Emerging Business), Care for Hedland (Environmental Sustainability), Transdev (Human Resource Management Award), East Metropolitan Health Service (Innovation Award), Liquor Barons (Marketing Award), and RAC (Workplace Welling Award). CBH Group placed second in the Environmental Sustainability Award. Self-made billionaire Kerry Stokes was named Business Leader of the Year, telling the crowd he had spent his career committed to creating a culture in which people were “motivated to excel and engaged to contribute their best”.