Organic industry profiles

Breakdown of Australian organic industry retail sales, 1995 (A m) (source Hassell Associates 1995). 

Product grouping Queensland New South Wales ACT (Canberra) Victoria Tasmania South Australia Western Australia Total 

Dairy producers. The dairy industry in Australia has suffered boom and bust cycles for most of the last hundred years though the competitive global food market has taken its toll over the last decade. A recent vote by dairy farmers will see deregulation with a levy imposed per litre to pay farmers to exit the industry over the next decade. Ironically this has come at a time when there is huge interest from Japan for Australia to supply organic 

The fresh milk market has also been supplied with organic and biodynamic milk for a number of years by Sandhurst dairies, initially owned by the Coles Supermarket chain. Now independently owned, they still market their milk widely through the supermarkets and specialty stores. Another entrant to the market is Snowy Mountains Organic Dairy Company, which has produced a low fat (99% fat free) milk, full-cream milk and fresh cream. One problem of many organic dairy farmers is whether the dairy they deliver to consolidates organic or biodynamic milk, if not, then they have no choice but to sell the milk for the conventional market. This has frustrated many farmers and has led several to produce their own organic cheeses on farm, rather than put their milk in with the conventional. 

Portelli s on their property near Bega and are supplying much of New South Wales, southern Queensland and northern Victoria specialty shops as well as Woolworths in southern New South Wales. 

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Halpin, D. 2004a. A farm level view of the Australian organic industry. In Halpin, D. (ed.) Australian Organic Industry Profile. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Canberra, pp. 1-29. 

F. W. Lichtenthaler and P. Pokinskyj, Exploitation of sucrose towards products with industrial profiles, in W. Praznik and H. Huber (Eds.), Carbohydrates as Organic Raw Materials, Vol. 4, WUV-Univ, Vienna, 1998, pp. 9-19. 

There is little data available to profile the organic industry in Australia and anecdotal evidence is used to extrapolate from the most recent survey by Hassell Associates 1996 who reported total sales of A 80.5m. (see Table 13.3.) The two largest wholesale outlets for organic fresh fruit and vegetables in Melbourne and Sydney have reported consistent growth over the past 5 years of 25% per annum. The same Melbourne wholesaler recently reported 60% growth in the last 6 months, due most likely to increased media coverage... 

In the food industry LC is frequently used to determine the quality of the finished product. For example, it has been shown that the flavor quality of grape juice is directly linked to the amount and spectrum of organic acids present. Likewise, in the production of sour cream by fermentation, the quality of the finished product quality is related directly to the organic acid profile. Last, but not least and as pointed out above, LC techniques are also crucial in determining the quality of recombinant protein products. 

There is a vast range of aqueous organic pollutants with a wide toxicity profile. Some, e.g. polychlorinated biphenyls, certain herbicides, fungicides and pesticides, and organo-mercury compounds, are persistent and may bioaccumulate in the food chain. Trace contaminants such as sodium chloride, iron and phenols (especially if chlorinated) may also impart a taste to water. Typical consent levels for industrial discharges are provided in Table 13.10. 

By far the highest industrial potential for a fructose-based compound is to be attributed to HMF, which has been termed a key substance between carbohydrate chemistry and mineral-oil-based industrial organic chemistry. Like the bulk-scale commodities hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid, HMF represents a six-carbon compound with broad industrial application profiles. It is readily accessible from fructose or inulin hydrolysates by acid-induced elimination of three... 

Table 6.2 shows the important applications of sodium hydroxide. Direct applications can be further broken down into pulp and paper (24%), soaps and detergents (10%), alumina (6%), petroleum (7%), textiles (5%), water treatment (5%), and miscellaneous (43%). Organic chemicals manufactured with sodium hydroxide are propylene oxide (23%), polycarbonate (5%), ethyleneamines (3%), epoxy resins (3%), and miscellaneous (66%). Inorganic chemicals manufactured are sodium and calcium hypochlorite (24%), sodium cyanide (10%), sulfur compounds (14%), and miscellaneous (52%). As you can see from the number of applications listed, and still the high percentages of miscellaneous uses, sodium hydroxide has a very diverse use profile. It is the chief industrial alkali. 

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