Scenic Rim food and beverage producers shone on the national stage and were inspired by some of the best in the business globally at the recent Farm2Plate Exchange.
A strong Scenic Rim cohort attended the inaugural exchange, a national forum coordinated by Regionality to bring farmers, food and drink producers, chefs, tourism and hospitality businesses together.
Mike and Wendy Webster of Scenic Rim Brewery, Troy and Vicki Muller of Peak Veggie Patch, Deb Richardson of Running Creek Beef and Kay Tommerup of Tommerup’s Dairy Farm attended, alongside Eat Local Scenic Rim project officer Susie Cunningham.
They were among more than 100 people from across Australia’s food and beverage supply chain to attend Farm2Plate, and the Scenic Rim Regional Council partnered with Regionality to subsidise the registration fee for Scenic Rim businesses to attend.
The two-day program was jam-packed full of international and national keynote speakers, from agriculture and tourism industry leaders to chefs and farmers sharing their success stories.
Farm2Plate provided the opportunity for Scenic Rim attendees to keep across national and international industry trends, forge new connections, be inspired by what is working for other regions and be encouraged by the high caliber of local products and storytelling already being produced out of the Scenic Rim.
Kerry dairy farmer Kay Tommerup, who attended through support from Norco and was a guest speaker at Farm2Plate, said the event was a boost.
“The things we’re already doing, like telling our story, were reiterated over and over across the two days, and it makes me feel confident that what we’re doing is the right thing and we’re on the right path and that we can have the confidence to take the next step,” she said.
“It was inspiring to look at other people’s businesses and take little bits I like that we’re not doing and that perhaps we could incorporate into our own business.”
Tomato growers Troy and Vicki Muller said gaining insights from other peoples’ food business journeys was invaluable.
“It was encouraging that most of the people who’ve been on this journey haven’t finished – they’re looking to expand again,” said Troy.
“We’ve started our journey, and it’s the thought process that you benefit from coming to these things – the how, when, where, why behind where people went with their food business.”
Beef farmer Deb Richardson said Farm2Plate reiterated the power and value of teamwork.
“The more we can gather our producers and actually have them work with each other and consider each other and work out points of collaboration or locations of collaboration, I think that’ll only make us stronger,” she said.
Craft brewer and cook duo Mike and Wendy Webster said attending the forum highlighted the Scenic Rim’s positive trajectory as a food destination.
“Farm2Plate definitely showed us the Scenic Rim is on the right track, with Council steering it, and we’re doing the right things, there’s lots of ideas and lots of places we can go,” said Mike.
