Executive Manager Report

contacts

Committee and Officers

Mark Scott, Chair e: markpscott@bigpond.com Mario Casotti e: mario@casottigroup.com Wayne Ghilarducci e: strathspey@modnet.com.au Jason Jarvis e: twinpack@bigpond.com Harvey Giblett e: newtonbros@wn.com.au Sam Licciardello e: sam@orchard1sixty.com.au Susie Murphy White, Project Manager e: susan.murphy-white@dpird.wa.gov.au Nardia Stacy, Executive Manager e: nardia@pomewest.net.au

Budgeted income 2021–22

Project

General Account Budget (including FFS, interest Project Grant Funding APAL, Hort Innovation and DPIRD) 482,780

Biosecurity Account Budget (FFS and interest) 61,245

Budgeted expenditure general account for 2021–22

Project $

Project Manager including operating expenses — Susie Murphy White 96,000

Quality Testing Project — Maturity and Retail

36,000 Building Horticulture Business Capacity Program 20,000 Medfly Surveillance Trapping Network Kim James 12,500 Systems Approach Low Pest prevalence for Market Access 40,000 Promotion & Publicity Local Project — Fresh Finesse including events with Buy West Eat Best 37,500 Annual Meetings and Communication including publications 15,000 Industry Sponsorships and Association Memberships 6,000 Study Tour COVID-19 permitting 20,000 Producing Sustainable Crop Load Project — DPIRD 30,000 Platform Project 40,000 Administration including salary and office costs 192,000 APC charge @10% of FFS income 42,000

Total 587,000

Budgeted expenditure biosecurity account 2021–22

Project

Codling Moth (DPIRD) APC charge @10% of FFS income

Total

35,500 6,000

41,500

APC fee-for-service charge

POME FRUIT EFFECTIVE FROM 1 JANUARY 2015

Type of fruit

Fresh fruit — apples, pears, Nashi, other Processing fruit Biosecurity FFS for fresh fruit Biosecurity FFS for processing fruit

$/kg

0.015 0.005 0.002 0.001

From the Pomewest

Executive Manager Season update

BY NARDIA STACY EXECUTIVE MANAGER, POMEWEST

“A comely sight indeed it is to see, a world of blossoms on an apple tree.

John Bunyan

Spring adds new life and new beauty to all that is. Celebrating the first bud burst this year, the significant rainfall and chill hours recorded so far means we should have a solid start in the development of new season’s fruit.

In looking over my report the same time last year, it is concerning that COVID-19 is still dominating world news. The Delta variant is currently wreaking havoc with outbreaks, and persisting snap lockdowns across the country. In turn, the ongoing labour implications with closed international borders continue. In the meantime, we all manage the best we can under the circumstances, but you have to wonder, will I be writing about the same scenario again in a years’ time? — let’s hope not. In mid-July we sent out, via grower newsletter, the 2021-22 budget projects for income and expenditure for our general and biosecurity accounts. These will also be published to the left of this article in each edition of the 21–22 year. This demonstrates transparency in our communications directly with growers and announces the priority projects and activities for the new financial year. Congratulations to Susie! This year we are proud to announce that our Project Manager Susie Murphy White is now 50 per cent externally funded for projects including PIPS 3 Soil Health trial site, APAL Tree Census and APAL Future Orchards. She continues to demonstrate that the quality of her work and in-turn the successful results, are being widely recognised by the industry’s national funding stakeholders.

It is our intention to continue to build leveraging external funding for industry benefit from your grower FFS contributions.

Labour

Securing workers for our spring preparation and summer harvest is still on the agenda. Across the board WA generally is living with serious labour crisis as the pandemic continues. Department of Primary

WA Horticulture Update event — November 2021

f BRYN Edwards (vegetablesWA) is the project leader of the Building Horticulture Business Capacity program and will be working with the expertise of Planfarm consultants such as Paul Omodei.

Building Horticulture Business Capacity program is underway

The BHBC program is a collaborative project, with the Agricultural Produce Commission, vegetablesWA, Planfarm, DPIRD, and Hort Innovation — designed to improve business capacity for horticulture in WA. Pomewest have committed $60,000 of FFS funds within our budget over the next three years so that our growers can take part. Our seed funding will be significantly leveraged by the funding partners. Pomewest is currently involved in organising a whole of Horticulture WA Hort Update (WAHU) to celebrate the International Year of Fruit and Vegetables. We will actively be promoting the event over the next few months, so our growers can be involved in this great opportunity to celebrate our value to the community, share valuable insights and information, and have the opportunity to network with growers collectively across the horticultural sector.

Farewell and thanks to Paul Good — WA APAL Director

This November, Paul Good finishes his tenure after six years as WA Director of APAL. We thank Paul for his service on behalf of the WA apple and pear growers over the years, and look forward to announcing his replacement after the selection process for a new appointee has been completed. We wish Paul all the best in his future enterprises.

This edition

Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) are assisting the Hort industry by funding Kit Sainsbury as a Labour Scheme Facilitator to assist growers to access seasonal workers. As such, Kit has now moved under the management of DPIRD to continue this role. This is fast becoming the only real solution to the labour shortage, as the backpacker numbers nationally continue to decrease. Flight and quarantine programs are in place and I encourage growers who need to secure workers for the upcoming season should get involved either as an approved employer or access via labour hire companies.

Netting update

We are all aware that netting is a high priority for the WA pome industry. Pomewest have been working with DPIRD to access funds allocated in the National Netting Scheme. Of the allocation it is believed that only half of the funding has been accessed so far. In Mid-August Growers were invited to an on-line workshop section to flesh out the details and criteria for application. Additional funding to the scheme was also announced. We invite and encourage our FFS paying growers to be part of this new project which is designed to you gain a clearer understanding of the profit levers inside the cost structure of your businesses.

In addition, provide our industry with measurable benchmarking data to prioritise areas for future funding support. If you see the value and would like to be involved, we can absolutely guarantee your business confidentiality, make sure the information collection process is as uncomplicated as possible and the process of the program is managed carefully. The team has already met with several growers in the South West who have already expressed keen interest in being involved. Many have embraced the opportunity for a 'fresh eyes' approach to assist them to find innovative ways to improve efficiencies and potentially lift returns. We intend to meet with pome growers in the Hills region soon. It is hoped that in the near future other WA horticultural sectors will join in to build the program.

We celebrate Ben Darbyshire in his retirement as Chairman of the We celebrate Ben Darbyshire in his retirement as Chairman of the Fruit West Co-operative. Fruit West Co-operative and in so doing acknowledge his service to industry over many years. Chris Hall from Total Quality Assurance Systems gives us an insight on the outcomes of the last three year’s quality testing in wholesale and retail markets, and Susie contributes an article from the Biosecurity Horticulture Liaison Officer project depicting information on Endemic Pests (established pome pests in Australia but not present in WA). In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to invite any of our growers to contact both Susie and myself if you need any assistance with any matters. Our committee, in turn, are also available to discuss issues and are willing to bring any formal matters for consideration at our quarterly Committee meetings the last meeting for the year will be held in mid — late November.

MORE INFORMATION

Contact Nardia Stacy, Executive Manager, 0411 138 103 or nardia@pomewest.net.au