Beyond the farmgate: identifying Tasmanian farmers Web 2.0 use in agri-food supply chain

Food security – the ready access to adequate quantities of safe, nutritious food – is a major concern of governments and industry around the world and has led to an increasing focus on the agri-food supply chain. Yet despite sophisticated (often global) connections between retailers and processors, little attention has been paid to linking primary producers into these supply chains, although they are under considerable pressure from a combination of factors including: global markets, highly concentrated market power and increasing government regulation. In this paper we report the first stage of a research project investigating the possible use of Web 2.0 by primary producers to reduce costs and enhance their marketing opportunities, concentrating on farmers in the Australian State of Tasmania. The initial stage of the project was a series of interviews with experts in the four sectors selected (dairy, seafood, fruit & vegetables and meat) to understand how ICT is currently used in these sectors and to what extent the possibilities offered by Web 2.0 had already been realised.