Securing industry's future

Dfa Pursues Levy Increase

For the first time in more than 30 years, Dried Fruits Australia (DFA) is pursuing an increase in the Dried Vine Fruits Research and Development Levy in an effort to secure the industry into the future.

At DFA’s 2022 annual general meeting producers proposed and voted on a change in the Research and Development Levy from $11/tonne to $20/tonne.

This levy has not been increased in more than 30 years and it was the view of those at the AGM that it has not kept pace with increasing costs and overall contributions required for funding quality research and development. This levy is the only funding that is then matched by the Commonwealth Government.

With a current average production of 15,000 tonnes per year, and a predicted increase to 25,000 - 30,000 tonnes within five years, the dried grape industry is focussed on continuous improvement to deliver on domestic and export market demands.

For this to occur the industry relies on research and development for new leading edge technologies, equipment and vine improvements to maintain and increase quality and capacity of production.

Grower and DFA chair Mark King said benchmarking had shown it was possible to consistently produce 10 tonnes of dried grapes to the hectare.

“Research and development on production could increase this figure even further,” he said.

DFA CEO Thomas Cheung said the peak industry body’s vision was to have a sustainable and innovative horticultural industry that consistently supplies high quality dried grapes to consumers.

“Demand for quality Australian dried grapes continues to grow in domestic retail, wholesale, foodservice and export markets,” he said.

“There is strong demand from Asian and European markets for high quality Australian dried grapes, therefore industry is endeavouring to increase production and maintain quality to meet and extend this demand along with developing new market opportunities across South-East Asia.”

Thomas said the current R&D levy has been expanded to cover a wide range of industry initiatives. In addition to the traditional R&D projects, it now also contains new market access and development, trade missions and industry study tours.

“Our current R&D levy is structurally outdated and not workable to deliver the outcomes the industry strategic plan sets out. We have been lagging behind many other industries, but it is never too late to get the change of R&D levy process started.”

Thomas said the process would take time and, if growers voted in favour of the proposed change, it would likely come into effect in season 2025.

Mark said research was a critical component for productivity gains.

“Historic research and development led to the successful dried on the vine Shaw swingarm trellis system and mechanised winter pruning and harvesting, which is now becoming commonplace across the dried grape industry,” he said.

“New research and trials are needed to further refine these systems to make them as efficient and productive as possible, while maintaining quality.

“The industry needs to trial any new suitable vine varieties to produce high quality yield and help growers manage their risks across the season.”

Mark said in the past, much research had been based on small scale properties up to 50 hectares, but as the scale of properties grows, research needs to also be tailored to growing at scale.

While the Australian dried grape industry has been a global leader in research into dried grape production, Thomas said over the past decade, the ability of the industry to fund new research had become severely impacted through unavoidable hits to tonnages produced, increasingly due to severe weather events such as drought, hail, rain, floods and disease.

"It has become a challenge to deliver on new priority research and development strategies. Increasing the levy will help to deliver this crucial research and development and secure the industry into the future," he said.

Based on the direction of those at the 2022 AGM, DFA is pursuing the increase through the levy amendment process, which will include a grower vote later this year, as guided by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.v