Processing Tomato Fund The Hort Innovation Processing Tomato Fund – new for 2016/17 The processing tomato collective industry fund (CIF), now known as the Hort Innovation Processing Tomato Fund, was established in February 2017. It brings together financial contributions from the processing tomato industry – collected as a voluntary levy – and allows access to Australian Government contributions. The processing tomato industry has set producer contributions to the CIF at a rate of 0.5 per cent of gross value of production. Hort Innovation will be responsible for strategically investing this levy and government funds into R&D projects to improve industry productivity and profitability, and to ensure the long- term sustainability of the processing tomato industry. All investment decisions are to be made in close consultation with industry, and Hort Innovation has an industry-specific Strategic Investment Advisory Panel (SIAP) established for this purpose. The SIAP and Strategic Investment Plan The processing tomato SIAP was appointed at the tail-end of the 2016/17 financial period. The panellists were selected according to skills-based criteria and considering geographic and sectorial diversity. The panel also has a chair. When providing advice to Hort Innovation on potential levy investments, the SIAP’s guiding document will be an industry- specific Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). This document will outline key investment outcomes and strategies, and ensure all investment decisions align with industry priorities. At the time of writing, Hort Innovation was working with industry to draft and validate the SIP. Processing tomato SIAP panellists Name Organisation Location Matthew Wright Kagome VIC Charles Hart APTRC Chair VIC James Weeks Weeks Family Farms VIC Andrew Ferrier SPC Ardmona VIC Jim Geltch Geltch Investments NSW Liz Mann Industry Development Manager VIC Nick Raleigh Kagome VIC Tony Henry AD & VR Henry VIC Sze Flett DEDJTR VIC Cath Botta Chair