Fresh Industry

Milich named marketer of the year

Mira Milich has taken the gong for Marketer of the Year at the Apple and Pear Australia Limited (APAL) awards for excellence.

No stranger to Brisbane Markets, Ms Milich is a common sight in the Brisbane Produce Market promoting regional growers at Montague. It is Ms Milich’s passion for not just marketing fresh fruit, but bringing growers, buyers and consumers together to build understanding, loyalty – and sales – that have made her marketing so powerful and earned her the 2020 Marketer of the Year award.

“I’m a connector,” she says simply. As well as stonefruit and apple growers in Queensland’s Granite Belt, she now represents stonefruit growers as far south as Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. “There was all this beautiful fresh product on the market floor but we didn’t really see any of the farmers’ faces behind the product, and there was no education around it,” she said. “I felt really strongly that it was time to tell the story and help Australia learn more about the growing regions and the fruit that they take into their home, not only to tell growers’ stories but also to educate the consumer about choosing fruit. There are great benefits in seeing the face behind ‘the brand’ and talking to them one-to-one.” Building relationships has also built sales, Ms Milich says, as buyers familiar with the grower and happy with the fruit have consistently bought it themselves and told others about it. The beautiful photos and ‘behind-the-scenes’ videos of growers and their families, and what’s going on in the orchard season by season, that have been shared with Divine Fruits’ growing online following have also changed perceptions and buying habits among consumers. “To see growers in their orchards, their kids walking through and eating fruit, it’s very relatable,” Ms Milich said. “People don’t just comment on the post, they take the time to email and say they saw it and went and bought the fruit and please could I pass on to the growers that they were the best apples they’ve ever eaten.” Her hope for the award is that it will show how important it is for growers’ stories to be told so that consumers can learn more about the process of growing fruit and the people who do it.

“It is essential we share how our food is grower-delivered, the beautiful places it comes from and how much time and effort producers invest, so that people can value and appreciate the food they put on their table. It’s good to share, as it is the reality,” Ms Milich said. This is an extract of an article that first appeared in the Australian Fruitgrower magazine, Spring 2020 issue. You can read the full story at https://bit.ly/3jVCX6n.

Bearing divine fruit: 2020 APAL Marketer of the Year Mira Milich. IMAGE: Emily Bloomfield.

Members vote to update Hort Innovation’s Constitution

Hort Innovation members voted to change the organisation’s constitution at a virtual Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on Friday, 9 October. The change relates to how directors are appointed to the Hort Innovation Board, and how long they can serve.

Under the updated constitution, all new directors will be elected to the Hort Innovation Board by voting members. This is a change from the previous constitution, which saw the Board made up of a mix of directors elected by voting members and appointed by sitting directors. Under the new constitution, the only time directors can be appointed by the Board itself will be to cover casual vacancies of one year or less. The request to hold the EGM was made by Hort Innovation member Perfection Fresh. The EGM was attended by a quorum of voting members, with 92.59% of votes cast being in favour of amending the constitution. With the new constitution in effect, Hort Innovation members elected three new directors to the Board at the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the end November. The new directors are Tony Kelly, Michael Nixon and Victoria Taylor. Julie Bird was elected Chair, to replace outgoing Chair Selwyn Snell, and Paul Harker was voted in as Deputy Chair. The updated Hort Innovation constitution, as determined by company members, also sets a new maximum service period for directors. All newly elected directors will have a maximum service period of two consecutive terms of three years (six years total), where under the former constitution, directors could serve up to three consecutive terms for a total period of nine years.

Working through the challenges of 2020

By Julia Wheway, Agriculture Workforce Officer – North Qld, Hosted by the Bowen Gumlu Growers Association

2020 has certainly presented Bowen Gumlu growers with some unique challenges, the impact of COVID-19 on the horticulture industry has tasked small and large growers alike to rise to the challenge and implement innovative measures to guard against the virus. Growers have continued to produce the nation’s food under the Seasonal Workers Health Management Plans Directive, which was put into effect by the Chief Health Officer in early May 2020 to protect industry, workers and the community from the spread of COVID-19.

We can be proud of the current situation, where there have been no cases of COVID-19 impacting the horticulture industry in our region. This has been achieved through the hard work of individual businesses, ensuring that the measures implemented have been upheld throughout the entire season, which is an incredible achievement.

Developing and implementing local solutions to the current seasonal worker shortages are central to my work as the Agriculture Workforce Officer for North Queensland. Talking to growers about their current and future workforce needs, assisting them with the ‘new normal’ of managing their seasonal workforce in a COVID-Safe environment and providing updates to industry about the various workforce initiatives, has assisted growers to keep up to date on relevant information, while continuing to supply their produce to markets this season.

Growers in our region have yet again proven their resilience in coping with market uncertainty and disasters of all kinds, in this case a global pandemic. However, this does not mean that it has been easy for them, many decisions have been made about production levels without knowing if there will be a workforce available to get the produce to the marketplace and this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Locally, we have started to look at potential avenues for attracting workers to our industry. Timing is a great thing, an idea that has not worked in the past may well be the very best solution right now, so nothing is off the table. We are looking at cross sector employment opportunities to develop a year-round opportunity for potential workers who would like to take up work in our region. There is work available right now in one of the most beautiful places in the country, right on the doorstep of the Great Barrier Reef.

As Bowen Gumlu Growers Association president Carl Walker says, “where else in the world can you step off the tractor and go down to the local creek to put in your crab pots or on your days off go to Whitehaven Beach and visit the Whitsunday Islands?” The vegetable season has reached its peak, so Carl may get the chance he dreams of to throw in a few pots with his son Troy, who has worked side by side with Carl for a number of years, learning the ropes. We now move our attention to the highly anticipated mango season. We don’t know yet what will happen on the market or if we will have enough workers, but there is one thing we know for sure: our growers will do everything in their power to deliver the best quality product to market again this year, COVID or no COVID.

Barnard takes hold of the reins at Growcom

Stephen Barnard has stepped into the role of CEO of Growcom, replacing David Thomson who left the position in August. Growcom Chair, Belinda Adams, said she was pleased to announce Mr Barnard’s appointment. “Stephen is a highly regarded and experienced senior executive with over 20 years in senior leadership roles in the services and agricultural sectors. His primary focus will be to ensure that the needs of our members are met, through optimising the structural and operational needs of the Growcom business,” Ms Adams said.

Stephen’s background includes many years working in member-based financial service sectors and consulting roles specialising in organisational turnarounds and customerfocused business change programs. His previous roles have included Senior Consultant at KPMG, Senior Executive at international environmental services group Transpacific Industries, Chief Executive at Your Credit Union and Chief Change Officer at Australian Certified Organics Certification. “At this very challenging and pivotal time for us all, I am very excited to be part of Growcom on it’s journey to be the best grower representative body we can be, working towards the sustainable future of the horticulture industry through effective advocacy on behalf of growers,” Mr Barnard said. “Effective grower engagement, and the delivery of value and relevant services to members is my highest priority. I am looking forward to working with the whole Growcom team in engaging with as many of our grower members as possible, so as to properly understand and meet their needs.”

New Growcom CEO, Stephen Barnard.

Snapshot shows importance of water security for the Wide Bay Burnett

By Bree Grima, Managing Director, Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers

Who are we? This regional snapshot provides readers an insight to our region, one we hope you’ll visit soon. Bundaberg Fruit and Vegetable Growers (BFVG) represents fruit, vegetable, herb and nut producers in the Wide Bay Burnett. The 48,598 km2 region enjoys a subtropical climate and rainfalls between 850 mm to 1150 mm and encompasses five local government areas: Bundaberg, North Burnett, South Burnett, Gympie and Fraser Coast.

The population for the Wide Bay area in 2018/19 was 299,465 with the region’s gross regional product estimated at $13.30 billion, representing 3.78% of the state’s gross state product. Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing employed 8,990 full time equivalent people in 2018/19 and specifically 8,025 in agriculture alone representing 8% of all employment in the region. This figure does not consider the various associated industries such as manufacturing or services which are captured separately. The state average is just 2.71% for agriculture highlighting the importance of this sector to the Wide Bay region. Statistics capturing change in employment recorded a decrease for numerous industries including trade and mining; however, in agriculture this increased by 223 full time equivalents, highlighting the increasing expansion of the industry even with a noticeably changing landscape within horticulture, from ground crops and sugar cane to tree plantings such as macadamia and avocado plantations. Even with a slight decrease in ground crop plantings in the region, the vegetable industry in Bundaberg alone is valued in excess of $237 million, covering approximately 6,000 hectares, producing a diverse range of vegetable crops including capsicum, corn, beans, pumpkin, zucchini, Brussels sprouts and chili by more than 100 growers across the region. Water security and food security are intricately linked. For a growing region that is the largest supplier and growing region for five commodities, sweet potato, macadamia, passionfruit, chili and avocado, it is vital that policy for water security moves beyond the immediate needs of the region and plans for the future to ensure producers have capacity to expand to meet market demand.

Water security supports healthy communities, jobs and productive economies and that is why BFVG are calling for the Queensland Government to stabilise Paradise Dam, our major water source in the region built for irrigation supporting over 1000 customers and to reinstate it to full supply level. If you would like to know more about Paradise Dam and the saga surrounding it head to https://bit.ly/3oRpAb3.