vegetablesWA CEO’s Report

BY MANUS STOCKDALE ACTING CEO, VEGETABLESWA

Although I’m sure many of you know me from my work with vegetablesWA, I should introduce myself in my new role as the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of vegetablesWA, in this exciting time for agriculture in Western Australia.

Firstly, I’d would like to thank our former CEO, John Shannon, who has left to pursue new opportunities. John has had a long history with vegetablesWA from when he joined in 2009 and served as CEO for the last six years. John has been a strong advocate for the needs and interests of Western Australian vegetable growers for over a decade, and his presence will be missed. We wish John all the best and thank him for his contribution to the industry so far. Over the past three and a half years working at vegetablesWA I’ve had some thoughts about the opportunities available to the WA vegetable industry and what the association could do to assist growers. I believe my work on the Export Facilitator Project and other projects has given me a good understanding of how the industry operates, an appreciation for the people working in it and the very real challenges they face every day.

Over the last few months, the team have been talking to a number of growers as a result of projects like the Building Hort Business Capacity Program, for instance.

From those conversations we know that business is difficult, and not just because of a global pandemic. Growers talk about the ever-increasing costs over the last thirty years, and yet the prices stay flat. Some farms are finding new markets, while others are outpriced from domestic markets by new suppliers. With these and many other challenges, it’s difficult to know where to start, but we do believe there are things we can do to help. Our data and experience means

we firmly believe that growing vegetables could and should be a profitable business.

You’ll never be billionaires, but it should certainly provide a high standard of living for your family and future generations. We see profitable business models in some farms already, and we believe that’s within reach for everyone.

We believe technology will revolutionise agriculture for the better.

Whether that’s artificial intelligence that can predict prices or biotech increasing yields, the ‘agtech’ sector is growing in Australia and is a priority for the Commonwealth. However, such is the speed of change and the introduction of new technologies, a grower can’t be expected to keep up, never mind implement everything.

We believe in the value of collaboration

and the strength of our network. Clearly you operate in a highly competitive market. It’s tempting to see the market as a battle ground where if someone wins someone else necessarily has to lose — but the fact is there are areas of business where there are clear benefits to collaboration. Whether its buying clubs for common supplies, coming together to provide a year-round supply for a large importer or sharing pricing and volume data, there will always be areas where there is greater benefit from working together than working separately. We need to work together to expand the overall market pie so everybody wins. All of this is easy to say. The real value is in the action that comes from these words. That means we’re going to spend the next few months defining what success looks like and developing projects and activities that we believe will build towards this success.

We believe technology will revolutionise agriculture for thebetter.