The Passion Vine
The Passion Vine – June 2015
Post Office Box 321 Pomona QLD 4568
Executive Report By Jann Bonsall The chill is in the air, the dams are full and the passionfruit world is, seemingly very passionate! Much has been happening over the past three months with organising and conducting the PAI General Meeting at Kellys Beach Resort in Bargara and the on-going organisation of the Annual General Meeting and Field Walk to be held at Newrybar, just outside Byron Bay. An overview of the General Meeting in Bargara is on page 12 and information about the activities surrounding and including the AGM and Field Day in August on page10. A conversation with Horticulture Innovation Australia has resulted in a decision that there won’t be an Annual Levy Payers’ Meeting held in conjunction with the AGM and Field Walk this year. The Royal Queensland Show invited Passionfruit Australia to participate in the Rural Discover Day held annually at the RNA Showgrounds in Brisbane. More about that event on page 8. It’s that time of year to renew membership and after four years it’s time to make an incremental increase to fees. Membership fees and lobby fees will each rise $5 to $115 and $25 respectively.
Renewal for grower members will therefore total $154 and new members (which includes a $50 joining fee), processors, nurserymen, agents and associates $198. You only have to consider the increase in the cost of postage to understand the PAI are not into empire building! Cherie Gambley, as the Project Leader of the Overcoming Viruses Project through QDAFF, lodged the Final Report at the end of March and the Summary of that is on page 11. PAI is currently working on the next project, an outline of which will be presented at the AGM along with an update of the DNA Fingerprint Toolkit (current report on page 9.) Jenny Margetts from P2P Business Solutions has been undertaking a Supply Chain project for the passionfruit industry over the past months and in this edition on pages 1316 you will see a report on the outcomes. There is also an article announcing the winners of the 5 Wish Cards that were on offer for those of you who contributed data (page 16).
Newsletter of Passionfruit Australia Incorporated
Page 1
June 2015 The marketing program continues to deliver excellent results! Industry has three new recipes from Sammy and Bella and positive responses from the major retailers. More information about the retailers in News Bites, the marketing report on page 19. AND one of the new fabulous recipes on page 18. While this edition is off at the printers there is a major Agvet (Chemical) Prioritisation Workshop being undertaken in Canberra. This project has been in train since 2014 and culminates in agriculture having two days to sit at the table in collaboration with Research Development Corporations (RDCs), representatives of the wide industry groups and chemical registrants discussing priorities nominated by each industry in degrees of priority. There is government funding available for the outcomes of this workshop and PAI will advise the outcomes as soon as they are available. In the meantime, on page 7 there is a chemical registration and permit table outlining those available to the passionfruit industry. This is not a complete list but provides an outline, particularly of registrations. So, the most important things to remember are: Renew your membership so (Continued on page 3)