ATGA CEO & industry development updates

Audit process goes hybrid

The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) will change the way it conducts grower and pack house audits this year due to the ongoing Covid situation in all states.

The ATGA welcomes the change – it’s something we’ve pushed for, for a number of years now, since the start of the electronic export registration system. We’ve advised DAWE that growers who register for exports year on year, and have been compliant in all requirements, should be recognised for their compliance and effort. DAWE will trial the method this year to see if it can implement it for future years. Growers should be accredited based on past records, and compliance history, and not be required to undertake a full audit each year. A number of growers have already been subjected to a pre-season audit, those that haven’t at this stage will have a physical audit from the end of February onwards. While it is an inconvenience to have a physical audit during your harvest season, DAWE believes that it’s important to see harvest operations in action, in real time, to demonstrate that growers are doing what they say they are.

Therefore, growers must take this year’s physical audits seriously and demonstrate full compliance. This will lead to continued hybrid audits for everyone in future years, and should also reduce the audit fee.

DAWE will conduct in-season audits in a hybrid model due to Covid issues affecting human resources and travel. It recognises that the current Covid situation has had a significant impact on both grower and departmental resources, meaning different methods must be employed to facilitate ongoing trade as well as maintain a required level of assurance that importing country requirements are being met.

Growers must meet the requirements to ensure the hybrid audit model is successful. What does that entail? There will be an initial phone entry meeting, which will cover pest notification and monitoring requirements, as well as discussions on reference materials and specific conditions for protocol exports (such as product security requirements, IPM on farms, etc.) A review of recordkeeping will also take place during this initial call.

DAWE will then undertake a remote desktop audit where it will initiate an audit meeting request/email to have a time for an entry meeting, exit meeting and request that the establishment manager be available for questions via phone. Growers will be expected to explain notification requirements for changes to accredited properties, or if a pest of concern was detected what actions were taken and how were they documented. Don’t forget that any action undertaken in your pest monitoring must be substantiated in your spray diaries. Other questions will be based on the work plans for countries growers are accredited for.

Essentially, the discussions involved with the desktop review conversations will cover elements that would normally be discussed and examined as part of the traditional face-to-face audit experienced in previous years. The topics will include records relevant to the audited entity, such as: training records, hygiene records, traceability, importing country requirements. They’ll also request records that would normally be provided as part of a site audit, as outlined in various performance standards on the DAWE website.

The onsite physical audit components are usually those not easily verified through documentation alone. The aviator will need to verify that documentation submitted during a remote audit is the same submitted during during a physical audit. Depending on the grower being audited, the auditor may require viewing of traps, labelling, storage, hygiene, etc.

Growers can refer to the performance standards on the DAWE website to find out more about what to expect.

We hope your audits are successful and your season fruitful! You can see what our chair has to say about the season in our 2022 board update, on page 22. v

Jeff Scott | CEO

Goodbye 2021, hello 2022

Like everybody, we’ve been looking forward to a fresh start in 2022, hoping it would bring more positive news. However, it feels 2022 has already thrown some curveballs.

Over the past few months, skyrocketing national and local Covid numbers meant many properties and businesses were shut down or low on staff due to isolation and travel restrictions. Alongside this, in January, Mother Nature also saw fit to throw hail into the mix. While only a strip of properties in Euston copped the worst hail, others were hammered with heavy rain, which also crossed the river into Robinvale. We are a resilient industry, though, and the show must go on!

Over the past few months, the team has been working actively on several fronts:

Restricted spring growth

Starting early October, restricted spring growth (RSG) was observed widely in the Sunraysia region, and the team had its hands full. So far, the team has:

- visited many growers throughout the Sunraysia and Robinvale regions, looking at symptomatic and nonsymptomatic vines

- collected and sent approximately 160 samples of symptomatic and non-symptomatic samples away for virus testing at less than half the normal cost to the participating growers

- collected and sent several samples for bacterial and fungal analysis - sent trunks for disease testing and roots for nematode, fungal and mould testing - plans to test for mites this year

- had numerous sessions with scientists and agronomic consultants from all over Australia to exchange information, get advice and receive assistance

- held multiple updates and information sessions for growers and interested stakeholders

- finetuned and rolled out a grower survey to drill down into possible causes of RSG.

Labour

In these difficult times, complications around sourcing and keeping labour and maintaining a safe working environment continue and are never far from our minds. To help with this, the team put together a COVIDSafe Plan and factsheets detailing some key responsibilities and obligations of employers and employees, the differences between labour hire companies and approved employers and the key steps involved in becoming an approved employer.

The Covid plan and labour-related factsheets can be found on the ATGA website or as hard copy at the ATGA office. There is also information on where to find assistance, if more is needed.

Additionally, a round table of local organisations involved in attracting seasonal workers to the Sunraysia region has been nurtured by the ATGA team since last year as part of an Agriculture Victoria grant (Seasonal Workforce Industry Support Program). During that time multiple online meetings with these organisations were held, as well as a session in January with jobseekers themselves. It will be interesting to see if this has resulted in a few more pickers! If this approach is successful, the team will roll it out to other states if wanted.

Projects

This year the ATGA aims to fast-track on-farm adoption of technology.

The use of “machine vision” (the ability for a computer to see, using cameras and convert the imagery to digital data) is well established for crop regulation in other crops such as apples and wine grapes, but not yet table grapes. For more information on this exciting project, see page 29.

The ATGA has also obtained further funding through Hort Innovation for a vine health project as part of our existing extension project. This will allow the ATGA to invest further resources into the quest to resolve the current RSG investigation, as well as being able to spend more time on vine health in general. v

Alison, Jenny & Karen Industry development team

amacgregor@atga.net.au jtreeby@atga.net.au kconnolly@atga.net.au