Meet our evokeAG. 2020 Future Young Leaders – Leesa Chen - evokeAG.

Use of cookies

The evokeAG. website uses cookies to enhance your experience and optimise site functionality.

Please refer to our Cookie Policy for more information on which cookies we use and how we collect and use your personal information through cookies

Skip to Content Skip to Navigation

Meet our evokeAG. 2020 Future Young Leaders – Leesa Chen

Meet our evokeAG. 2020 Future Young Leaders – Leesa Chen 

25 year old Leesa Chen is passionate about people-to-people connections that transcend borders. With particular interests in Australia-China bilateral trade, Leesa hopes to see closer collaboration and mutually beneficial partnerships between Australia and China through improved market access, innovation and value creation. And she walks the walk and talks the talk.

What steps have you taken to achieve your aspiration to support closer collaboration between Australia and China’s agricultural value-chain?

I Co-founded China Australia Food Circle (CAFC). CAFC is a cross-border platform that connects industry professionals across Australia and China’s food and agriculture industry. Currently in the second stage of prototyping, the network is a mobile based community with more than 60 active members who use a Chinese platform called WeChat. The network provides a platform that encourages cross-border dialogue and eliminates the transaction costs in obtaining industry updates and costs in finding partners and international customers.

I would like to help Australian agricultural sector better understand the Chinese market, Chinese culture and Chinese consumer behaviour which in turn enables the sector to produce high value products and services at a high price point. In understanding the Chinese market and the multilayered subcultures that lie underneath, I see myself as a bridge connecting Australia and China.

What are you most looking forward to about evokeAG. 2020?

I am looking forward to the new Startup Program for evokeAG. 2020 where startups get to pitch their ideas and solutions to an international audience including investors and customers. The rise of the “Born Global” where firms achieve international scale from the start or in its early stages reflects an inflection point for food and agriculture. Firms are no longer waiting years before they venture into the global arena and to hear from the thinkers and disrupters with startup ideas and global solutions from the very beginning is big, bold and exciting.

What’s the one message you want to leave with evokeAG. delegates?

The next generation of leaders in agriculture are thinkers and connectors. We are curious not only about how we do things but we are also concerned with the impact of our actions, both as decision-makers and as conscious consumers. Today more than ever, as our value-chains extend even further and as our products and services reach consumers all around the world, we are thinking about our social impact. We have a responsibility beyond the farm and factory gate and by doing well by doing good, businesses can become more sustainable and the communities that we operate in and the communities that we affect along the value-chain are better off.

What excites you about the Australia/China trade market? What can we be doing better to develop this market?

We are seeing the full benefits of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) through improved market access. It is also exciting to see more small and medium sized Australian businesses venturing into China to test the waters. But as the opportunities between Australia-China trade strengthen, China is also paving strategic trade relations all around the world.

Australia’s reputation as a producer of ‘clean, green and safe’ food is no longer unique. To better develop the Australia-China trade, we can start small and encourage grassroots networks and dialogues between young people between Australia and China’s food and agriculture sector.

If we can get these young people to be working together and growing together, in 10 years’ time, when these young people move into decision-making roles, there is an inherent understanding of each other’s culture and business environment and more importantly, there is a strong sense of trust. Trust paves the way for collaboration, partnership and improved trade between Australia and China.

Read more news
Read more news

Read

Calling all ag educators: five reasons why you should add evokeAG. to your professional development plan

Award-winning high school teacher Scott Graham, from Barker College in Sydney, is a leader in the field of agricultural education. In eight years, he’s helped more than triple enrollments of agriculture students at the College, is examining how to improve agriculture teaching at high school for his PhD and has picked up a Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. Here’s why he thinks that attending AgriFutures evokeAG. is some of the “best professional learning that a teacher can do” and some tips for making the most of it.

Tech
1 Sep 2023
4 min read

Listen

Humans of Agriculture: 2023 Future Young Leader Malkah Lara-Muckenschnabl

When Future Young Leader Malkah Lara-Muckenschnabl stepped off the stage at AgriFutures evokeAG. after presenting her vision to revolutionise recruitment in agriculture, her phone lit up with messages of congratulations and potential networks to bring that vision to life. In this Humans of Agriculture podcast with Oli Le Lievre, Malkah talks about her childhood on farms in South America, her innovative idea to break down the barriers between agricultural employers and employees, and how applying for the Future Young Leaders program was a risk worth taking.

Future
31 Aug 2023

Measurement and markets: empowering producers to make the most of natural capital

Farming in today’s economic climate is a battle between productivity and sustainability but what if there was a way for these two objectives to be achieved in tandem? Is it possible to grow economic prosperity at the same time as we diminish our carbon footprint? Could we revitalise Australia’s landscapes by the way we farm them? As it turns out, the answer lies in the hands of our farmers.

Farm
31 Jul 2023
5 min read

Highlights from evokeAG. 2023

In this evokeAG. 2023 podcast series you can hear from global change makers and thought leaders who examine how innovation and tech intersect to improve our agrifood sector. These conversations tackle some of the big challenges for our food, farmers and natural resources, exploring tech-savy solutions and opportunities to drive change.

Tech
6 Jun 2023

The fringe benefits of agtech

The application of agtech is often positioned to improve operational efficiency, profitability and sustainability. But could this narrow definition be limiting the adoption of agtech on farm and in the supply chain?

Farm
3 May 2023
4 min read