With finite time, capital and resources, food and beverage companies must decide where to invest today in order to create opportunities tomorrow. In an industry where compliance, credibility and consumer trust are increasingly important, those decisions can have a significant impact on long-term success. Virtual Headquarters CEO, Emma Davison, shares insights from years spent working alongside Australian small businesses at every stage of growth.

Six String Brewing Company has gone into voluntary administration after operating for 13 years and 18 months since moving to a larger premises in Erina on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Vow co-founder and CEO, George Peppou has stepped down as CEO but will remain with the cultivated meat company as an executive director. The new CEO is Alex Andrews, who joined the company as chief of staff at the beginning of the year. Peppou is heading up a new start-up that has been spun out of Vow

Noumi and Australia’s Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) are working together on a project to produce and scale recombinant bovine lactoferrin using yeast.

Wine Australia is running a coordinated program of trade, education and promotional activity across the Asia Pacific, backed by federal government funding, as the sector works to rebuild demand in China and diversify into Southeast Asia.

Australian beef exporters face a 55 per cent tariff on shipments to China for the rest of 2026 after the country exhausted its annual safeguard quota in under six months, removing tariff-free access to one of the sector’s largest markets.

A Western Australian truffle grower says it has unearthed the state’s first cultivated white truffle, opening a potential new product line for a region that already supplies the bulk of the Southern Hemisphere’s black truffle.

Victorian producer, Doreen Egg Aust, has paid $39,600 in penalties after the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) issued two infringement notices over alleged false or misleading claims that its eggs were free range.

A coalition of global food waste organisations has called on the COP31 presidency to turn existing commitments on food loss and waste into funded policy. It’s a move with direct relevance to Australia, which holds the presidency of negotiations for this year’s climate summit.

Inghams has placed its Western Australian farms and processing operations into complete lockdown after authorities confirmed Australia’s first detection of the high pathogenicity H5 avian influenza strain that has spread globally since 2020.

The a2 Milk Company is set to return $300 million to shareholders after securing Chinese regulatory approval that finalises its acquisition of the a2 Pokeno infant formula facility in New Zealand.

Seedlab Australia has appointed Kenna MacTavish as managing director, with co-founder Dr Hazel MacTavish-West stepping back from the chief executive role to become finance director and mentor.

RMIT has launched a Food Innovation Hub at its Bundoora campus in Melbourne’s north, positioning it as a way to help food manufacturers turn research into commercial products and tackle food system challenges.

French food and beverage company, Danone, has signed two agreements to buy health food business, MADE Group, and take full control of its Australian fresh dairy joint venture with Saputo, expanding its footprint in the Asia Pacific healthy nutrition market.

AC Foods has conducted a multi-million-dollar upgrade to its Legacy Packing Australia facility in Cobram, Victoria. The company partnered with Tomra Food on the fitout, which is set to to pack over five times the volume of its previous line.

Canada has placed food and beverage manufacturing at the centre of a new national food security strategy, backing a drive to process more of its own food with billions of dollars across new and existing programs, putting processing capacity and regulatory reform at its core.