Category: Business

From the farm to the household fridge, food waste remains a major issue across the Australian food supply chain.

According to ANZ’s latest Food For Thought report, Australian households alone discard about 3.1 million tonnes of edible food annually, equivalent to $8 billion.

ANZ Head of Institutional Food, Beverage and Agribusiness, Gerry Karam said: “In Australia we continue to have a significant food waste problem, which affects every stage of the food supply chain, from production and processing to retail and consumption.”

“The issue has far-reaching environmental, economic, and social implications, demanding urgent action and innovative solutions.”

At a farm level, various factors such as overproduction, market fluctuations, harvesting challenges and stringent quality standards lead to substantial losses. It is estimated that over 20 percent of vegetables produced in Australia – equivalent to around one million tonnes annually – never make it to market.

The problem extends beyond farms and into Australian households, where food waste is a pervasive issue, due to causes including over-purchasing, improper storage, and confusion over expiration dates.

“Another example is that Australians throw away nearly 1.3 billion slices of bread each year, which if stacked up, would create a tower over 1,000 kilometres high.”

“According to the UN Food Waste Index Report, Australians waste an average of 102 kilograms of food per person each year, placing the country among the highest food wasters globally”, said Karam.

“Food waste has a wide range of impacts, including environmentally, such as from landfill methane production, economically, through the cost of wasted food, and arguably most importantly socially, when dealing with Australia’s own food insecurity issues,” he said.

“Despite the challenges, there are a range of opportunities to reduce food waste, such as organisations who redistribute surplus food to charities, or through innovations in turning food waste into edible ingredients or renewable energy.”

“Reducing food waste is not just an environmental imperative; it is also an economic opportunity that can drive positive change across the entire food supply chain,” he said.

ANZ Economist, Madeline Dunk said: “ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence eased 0.9pts last week, driven by a 6.0pt fall in the ‘time to buy a major household item’ subindex. The current financial situation subindex also declined 1.9pts, but it is still up 5.2pts over the past two weeks and 9.6pts compared to the start of July. Despite some volatility in the week-to-week data, it appears the Stage 3 tax cuts are supporting confidence. Notably, inflation expectations fell to 4.7 per cent, their lowest level since January 2022, before inflation picked up materially in Australia.

It’s been a bumpy path down for inflation expectations since the peak of 6.8 per cent in November 2022, and that bumpiness has been evident in other measures like the NAB business survey’s price measures. The NAB measures are now consistent with inflation sitting around 2.5 per cent. We’ll be watching to see if inflation expectations continue to moderate over the coming weeks.”

Executing the first transaction for BNP Paribas on 2 July 2024, ANZ demonstrated its ability to settle the last stage of inward international AUD payments to eligible non-ANZ beneficiaries in near real-time¹.

ANZ Managing Director Transaction Banking Lisa Vasic said: “We see this as a game changer, which will help make sending payments simpler and faster for our financial institution customers. It will significantly improve the customer experience by reducing wait times, improving cash flow and increasing operational efficiency.

As the largest Australian dollar clearing bank in Australia, both individuals and businesses stand to benefit from receiving their international payments in near-real time. We’re particularly pleased that the infrastructure was built using in-house capability without relying on third party solutions.”

To execute the transaction, BNP Paribas sent an international payment to ANZ via SWIFT, which ANZ was able to process and clear into the NPP network, allowing the beneficiary to receive this payment in near real time.

BNP Paribas’ Global Head of Cash Management, Payments, Trade Solutions and Factoring, Pierre Fersztand said: “This partnership marks a significant step in BNP Paribas’ strategy to achieve instant and frictionless international payments. By strengthening our relationship with an established local partner, we are leveraging the local instant clearing framework allowing cross-border payments to settle instantly in order to enhance our clients’ experience.

Our approach aligns fully with the G20 roadmap for improving cross-border payments. As we continue to expand, BNP Paribas is actively working to enable additional payment corridors, subject to the capabilities of local clearing systems. This collaboration underscores our commitment to innovation in global transaction banking, ensuring we meet the evolving needs of our clients in an increasingly interconnected world.”

ANZ is focused on supporting multinationals and financial institutions with the movement of money and goods globally. ANZ Institutional retained its position as lead provider of AUD bank-to-bank clearing services globally for the 16th consecutive year, according to the recent FImetrix survey.

1. Subject to those payments meeting certain eligibility requirements including, but not limited to, the payment message being formatted correctly and the receiving bank being enabled to receive international payments via NPP.