AgLink has quietly – and increasingly successfully gone global.
At home AgLink is a confederation of 13 independent businesses operating from more than 230 locations across Australia and for almost 40 years has been helping Australian farmers grow quality, sustainable food and fibre.
It represents one of the largest groups of qualified professionals providing agronomy and animal production advice, supported by the supply of reputable products to those farmers.
The organisations DNA has been to employ qualified staff to help them produce greater volumes of clean, sustainable fruit and vegetables, wheat, barley, canola, rice, sugar, cotton, wool, beef, sheep and dairy. AgLink Australia has a strong focus on innovation, research and development, facilitating trials of new chemical, fertiliser, seed and digital technologies on behalf of our partner suppliers.
Now that blueprint for progress has expanded around the world through AgLink International, which was born from 2018 meeting in the US with likeminded enterprises and officially launched in 2019 with AgLink Australia one of its four founding members.
The international arm has just announced the addition of the Novafield group out of the EU and ICD in New Zealand to its alliance. They join independent agricultural organisations AgLink Canada, AgLink Australia, IAP in the US and Brazil’s AgriRede.
Representing 108 agricultural retail businesses across17 countries with a collective revenue of $US7 billion.
AgLink Australia chief executive Ian Scutt, who is also chair of AgLink International, says the international arm’s initial primary objective has been to connect its members and collaborate on matters of strategic importance.
Ian says some of those collaborations include:
• Market intelligence – with a focus on supplier and retail trends.
• Member engagement and networking.
• Agricultural technology (digitalisation) and innovations in agronomy, bio-stimulants and biopesticides.
• Cross country staff exchange experiences for staff.
He says from that list he believes the staff exchanges have created “incredible” benefits to participants and the companies with which they work.
“We started the exchange program with Canada, and the four-week rotations have proved almost lifechanging for some of the staff involved – both Canadian and Australian, “Ian explains.
“Getting that exposure to other farming systems and different environments has really widened the awareness and understanding of staff in how they view the work they do on their own farming locations,” he adds.
“It has really broadened their outlooks, their enthusiasm and lifted their industry knowledge and skills levels, making them even more valuable assets to their grower clients and their own companies.
“AgLink International is excited about the benefits this collaboration brings to both organisations and their individual members – being globally connected has never been more important for independent agricultural retailers and we look forward to the opportunities these partnerships will continue to deliver.”
Ian describes AgLink International as a “platform for progress” giving independent retailers the power to be part of a larger influential organisation while keeping their own company’s culture.
He also says it has encouraged and will continue to encourage the exchange of information on market trends and industry drivers.
“Sharing, networking, professional development for staff and study trips for members, as well as working together on emerging technologies such as digital technologies, agtech and bio-solutions, are all valuable outcomes derived from being part of AgLink International,” Ian adds.
“And that has been the focus to date, we have not yet taken the next big step of looking at how we can better leverage the scale of the organisation,” he says.
“We have been working hard on building the non-commercial benefits for all members but there is no denying AgLink International has some serious scale to work with.
“So yes, it is now getting to the point where we can start looking at our full potential.”
AgLink was established in 1986 when a small group of leading horticultural rural retailers (EE Muir & Sons, Serve-Ag and IK Caldwell) formed initially as IHD (Independent Horticultural Distributors) before emerging as AgLink in 2012.Ian says the group was founded on a set of values which remain to this day – collaboration, networking and sharing of knowledge.
Which he says has been fundamental to the success of the organisation.
The group’s initial activities were to engage collectively with the agricultural chemical suppliers of the day to ensure the “voice of independents was heard”.
“What followed from this new level of engagement was a focus on harnessing the technical expertise within the group’s members and working with those key R&D suppliers in jointly developing and launching of new molecule technologies, a defining part of the group’s capability to this day,” Ian says.
“That’s what we are looking to replicate through AgLink International – it is a process which has served the industry so well here and will do so on the international stage.”
