In 2016, Deloitte Access Economics was commissioned by Hort Innovation to model the impact of increased vegetable consumption on government health expenditure and producer returns.

The objectives of the project was to assist Hort Innovation to:

• identify the potential reduction in health costs due to an increase in vegetable intake;
• develop a business case for external funding support from other sources with an interest in improved health outcomes resulting from increased vegetable intake; and
• identify the increase in grower returns from an increase in vegetable consumption.

The project was targeted to vegetable value chain stakeholders, and government and non-government audiences. This document is intended to be a summary of the primary output of this project, which is a business case which outlines a ‘case for change’ for increasing vegetable consumption and identifies options for possible interventions to increase vegetable consumption. The business case is provided as an attachment to this report.

In preparing the business case, Deloitte Access Economics undertook research and modelling to quantify the potential benefits of increased vegetable intake in terms of reduced government health expenditure and increased financial returns to growers. The modelling considered two scenarios:

• Scenario 1 – average consumption of vegetables across the population was 10% higher.
• Scenario 2 – consumption of vegetables by males was equal to that of females (as males currently consume approximately 10% fewer vegetables than females, on average).