Australia’s biggest ag-tech event EvokeAg expected to attract thousands when it comes to Perth next year

The Asia-Pacific region’s biggest agrifood tech event AgriFutures evokeAG is heading to Perth in February 2024 as the State Government attempts to make the city an “agricultural food hub”. The announcement was made on April 18 by WA Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis at Whole Green Foods, in Mount Claremont. Ms Jarvis said WA farmers were known as “producers of clean, green food”, which made the partnership between the government and AgriFutures a good fit. She said driving innovation and increasing adoption of technology across the agrifood supply chain was a key priority for the State Government. “We were working with AgriFutures to host evokeAG in Perth in 2021 but COVID hit,’ Ms Jarvis said. “Western Australia’s strong connection with Asia and our excellent universities means we are well-placed to become a hub for agrifood innovation and investment into the future.” The Perth evokeAG event is scheduled to be held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre on February 20-21. It was held in Adelaide last year and attracted 1600 people from 20 countries - with people unable to attend due to the lack of available space. AgriFutures non-executive director Dr Bill Ryan said he expected the Perth event to attract about 2000 people from around the world, such as farmers, processors, innovators, accelerators, start-ups, researchers, universities, corporates, Government and investors. “We were planning to hold the event in Melbourne next year but the venue was not big enough for the numbers of people who would like to attend,” Mr Ryan said. “So we decided to come to Perth.” The AgriFutures event began in 2019 and has grown in popularity with investors looking for new and innovative ways to bring healthy and sustainable food to consumers. Local investment started at about $50m and now investors have about $250m in funding available, Dr Ryan said. He said evokeAG was about bringing together all sectors of the industry - including the world’s largest ag tech companies which have a combined $400 billion in funds under management. “Last year two of the world’s largest ag tech companies came to the event,” Dr Ryan said. “There’s a very vibrant community here in Perth and farmers in WA are quick to adapt to new technology.” He said evokeAG was about demonstrating how to solve real problems for farmers and where the opportunities are for investors. The event will look at future possibilities to enhance technology and investment across the agrifood, fibre and fisheries industries. Ms Jarvis said WA looked forward to hosting evokeAG - “bringing together innovators from across the country and around the world, to look at new possibilities for food and farming in the future”. WA start up and agrifood tech company, Whole Green Foods, was at last year’s evokeAG event in Adelaide showcasing its potential. Whole Green Foods co-founder and chief executive Nick Stamatiou said the company had been successful at attracting investment (about $2 million) for research into new foods and milks to eliminate waste while providing a healthy alternative for consumers. He demonstrated how the $500,000 WINX - whole ingredient nutrient extraction - plant machine that the company uses to process the foods works and said talks were underway with partners in Singapore to commercialise the process using plant-based products sourced solely from WA. “One-third of the world’s food is never consumed,” Mr Stamatiou said. “The world will soon reach 10 billion population. “We are looking at ways to provide healthy, sustainable, food for the future.” Mr Stamatiou will be a speaker at evokeAG in Perth next year.