Elizabeth Jackson

School of Management, Curtin University

elizabeth.jackson@curtin.edu.au

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research was to conduct a critical investigation of global vegetables benchmarking initiatives for the development of a new benchmarking system for vegetable production in Western Australia.  While farm-level benchmarking is far more robust for arable crop production and livestock enterprises, the rigorous benchmarking systems from non-government organisations were found to be the Farm Business Survey in the UK, Zentrum für Betriebswirtschaft im Gartenbau e.V. in Germany, AACREA in Argentina, Farm Digital in the Netherlands for innovative data sharing platforms, Agribenchmark benchmarks international farm-level data and Farm Sustainability Assessment which is based in the USA but collects global farm data. It was found that databases are similarly structured and principally based on gross margin analyses with additional information provided on fixed costs.  Overall, the data that are provided are relatively standard: income/receipts from sales and the costs of various fixed and variable costs.  Most benchmarking reports also provide details of yields in different formats.  The final recommendation of this research is for those building a new vegetables production benchmark to also consider large-scale producers about the possibility of sharing benchmarking data.

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Jackson has an industry and educational background in agribusiness and aspires to being a well-connected leader in the discipline of agri-food supply chain systems. With a first-class Honours degree in Agribusiness Marketing and an MBA, Elizabeth has held various management position at the CBH Group and in other WA agribusinesses. In 2008, Elizabeth completed an ARC-Linkage PhD studentship to study for the WA wool industry. She then worked at Newcastle University (UK) where she was the Degree Programme Director of the BSc Agribusiness Management degree and published in food marketing, supply chain management and maritime economics. In 2014, Elizabeth moved to the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College where she became a Senior Lecturer in Business Management and published in agribusiness and food supply chains. She was the Course Director for the College’s Professional Doctorate degrees. Elizabeth is now a Senior Lecturer within Curtin Business School where her teaching relates to supply chain management, procurement and distribution and she continues to investigate agri-food systems.