General Manager, Dowling Agritech - MOUNT GAMBIER EAST SA
CATEGORY: PRODUCTIVITY
This nominee has had a varied and exciting career path, starting in the R & D space of public service to his current position as grower, owner and Managing Director of Dowling Agritech in Mount Gambier. Ben Dowling has been nominated in the Productivity category due to his vision, his sound business acumen combined with his strong technical knowledge making him recognised as a key seed producer within Australia.
Ben's career started in agriculture as a Technical Officer for DPI NSW, setting up a tissue culture lab, and potato minituber operation. He then became Technology Manager for Technico, producing Technitubers and early generation seed potatoes across Australia and several Asian countries. When Technico moved head office to India, Ben bought their Australian seed business.
Through effective collaboration with potato processors and key fresh market growers, Ben has applied his sound agronomic background to now run the country's largest seed producing operation, growing some 8,000 t of high quality seed potatoes.
Ben is committed to continuous improvement, based on review of all crops each year, customer feedback, and adoption of emerging technologies. Ben is recognised by industry as a seed potato producer with a unique business model, who sets the highest of standards.