ATGA chair, CEO & industry updates

Weathering the storm

News from our chair

As a grower, exporter, and labour hire provider, this harvest season has been a perfect storm of events.

Thankfully, we are almost through the season, but it hasn't been without its tests.

There were some growers who were lucky to escape the full brunt of the mild weather, but even those up north with earlier seasons experienced challenges. I can’t remember a year that my Crimson Seedless coloured as late as it did this year. I put that down to the milder season, and the humidity we experienced throughout January and February. The lack of supply of labour means people are screaming for backpackers everywhere – in cotton, blueberries, there is so much choice. Those jobs would normally have to be fought for. If you applied for a job in cotton you’d have to compete with 3000 backpackers. Now, there simply aren’t enough to go around, and competition from other industries has had an effect. I have paid my workers a good hourly rate but they’re still ready to go elsewhere because the season’s nearly at an end – even though we’ll need workers for pruning. However, looking forward, I hope chemical and fertiliser supply will get back into a pattern, and everything in short supply will ease up before we move into next season.

News from our CEO

Unusual weather conditions, Covid, and seasonal labour have led to an unexpected and very challenging season.

Talking to growers and exporters, everyone has been faced with different circumstances that have significantly impacted the current harvest season. Covid has been a catalyst for many of those challenges. It’s no secret that the increasing cost of containers, treated pallets and freight shipping logistics have proved difficult for all exporters and growers. The seasonal harvest labour workforce is still a major worry for most growers, with estimates the industry has been short of labour by 50 per cent of its normal requirement. Of the workers available, many are picking and choosing which property to go to and what they will harvest. The ATGA has invested a great deal of capital resources in attempting to attract seasonal workers, producing resources for seasonal workers and hosting regular meetings with harvest labour providers, stakeholders, and the Victorian Government.

One of the priorities the ATGA has been pushing with state and federal bodies is the regulation of labour hire contractors (LHCs). Until governments get together to have uniform regulations for how LHCs operate, then issues with labour supply will continue to surface and be problematic for growers. Let’s hope the governments act on this soon. The Federal Government recently made a positive announcement, with news that one country had finally signed on to the new Australian Agriculture Visa (Ag Visa). However, that has been of no benefit to the industry this year and there is still a great deal of uncertainty around the successful implementation of the Ag Visa going forward. It is definitely something our industry cannot rely on going forward until there are more tangible announcements. The climatic conditions this year have also not helped, with very cool weather during spring and very little sunlight. Maturity sampling and retailer data, collected as part of the ATGA’s maturity project, along with a consensus of opinion, show this season’s late maturation, slow colouring and berry softness is likely related to these climatic conditions.

Late maturing of grapes in all regions meant consumer acceptability of grapes declined to worrying levels, where 50 per cent of consumers were not repurchasing within 12 weeks of a poor eating experience. Let’s hope this has been a one-off occurrence and the industry regains its status in the coming years. You can read more the maturity project updates on pages 14-15. v

Jeremey Boyd | Chair Jeff Scott | CEO

Out and about

News from ATGA’s extension and development team

While travel restrictions were still in place in many areas of the country, we remained busy.

As Victorian and new South Wales readers would be especially aware, restricted spring growth (RSG) has been front and centre for many producers since last October – and it certainly occupied a large amount of our time.

We have sampled plant material and conducted an array of testing. We have held information and brain-storming sessions with scientists, agronomic specialists, and producers Australia wide, as you would have read in this edition’s cover story.

Finally, though, restrictions have eased across all states, making travel possible, and (nearly) all producers have finished harvest. Now is the time for the extension team to travel and share some of the research, innovative technologies, and new chemistry we have been looking into in the past few months.

At the end of April, the team and Jeff travelled to Emerald, Mundubbera, and St George to talk about ATGA projects and find out what growers were concerned about. Two workshops – one in Emerald and one in Mundubbera – were held, with growers from other parts of Queensland able to link in.

As trunk diseases were identified as an area of concern on the team’s last trip, the latest research and findings were one of the topics of the workshops. Dr Regina Baaijens, from Charles Sturt University, who had previously met with Queensland producers, discussed trunk diseases and how best to manage them. Dr Everard Edwards, from CSIRO, gave producers an overview of innovative technologies for yield estimation, fruit maturity/composition, canopy size/ structure and irrigation optimisation, with brief demonstrations in each about what they can and can’t do and where each technology is at. The same theme – new technologies – continued, with presentations from RapidAim about Queensland fruit fly traps and what else is on the horizon. A chemical representative also provided information about newer chemistry options for the vineyard.

While in Queensland, the team also investigated prospective sites to trial replacements for Dormex® – hopefully to be complemented with trials in Greater Sunraysia later in July.

Grower sessions will be held late in June in Western Australia. The team will work with Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) to organise and ensure relevance and accessibility for everyone.

We'll also host grower sessions in Sunraysia to explore the results of our RSG testing in late May.

In July, we'll be presenting an agtech forum in Sunraysia to talk about, see and touch all things agtech. This event was planned for last year but was postponed due to Covid. We'll keep you informed about all these upcoming events in Pick of the Bunch and on social media.

As mentioned in the last edition of the Vine, ATGA has received funding from AgriFutures Australia to trial yield estimation via imagery and we will be working with Bitwise Agronomy and 10 growers in the Sunraysia and Euston/Robinvale area. Together, we will use a GoPro camera to capture side-on, plant-by-plant video footage during the season, and then upload the footage to the Bitwise’s GreenView portal. GreenView will analyse the footage, identify, count and measure the growth stages of the table grapes and generate tailored reports.

This is the first time Bitwise will venture into table grapes in Australia, so participating growers will receive a 12-month subscription for free, but will either share a GoPro (or purchase one themselves), provide data and ground proof some of the measurements taken, with assistance from the ATGA. This will help table grape growers make data-driven decisions through more accurate bunch counting of entire patches, adapt crop load management practices and estimate yields of every patch. We’ll be looking for 10 participating growers in June/July, so stay tuned in to our socials for a call out. v

Alison, Jenny & Karen Industry development team

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