This past year may well go down as the most significant in the recent history of the Australian banana industry with growers rejecting an ABGC proposal to establish a compulsory national levy to fund plant protection, R&D and promotion-related activities.
The result is a profound disappointment to all those who believed passionately in the concept of a national levy and who worked hard to make it a reality.
I thinks it’s true to say that in the short-term most growers will notice little difference to their operations as a consequence of this decision. However I have no doubt thet there will come a time when we will all be confronted with the harsh reality of our short-sightedness.
This decision leaves a host of unanswered questions in its wake, such as how we fund our share of any future exotic pest or disease incursion eradication response? How we ensure that we have enough trained and experienced scientists to deal with future outbreaks and how we ensure we can effectively promote our product when fewer growers are willing to contribute to a voluntary promotions fund?
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who supported the levy proposal and did their best to bring it about. Thank you also to my fellow ABGC directors whose wise council, unity, hard work and support for the levy proposal never wavered.
Imports
Who would have thought when the initial Philippine banana import risk analysis kicked off in 2000 that we would still be waiting for a decision five years on?
At the time of writing, the third draft Import Risk Analysis is being produced by Biosecurity Australia (BA) but its release would still appear to be some way off. There is no question that progress on the third draft has been slowed by internal restructuring of BA brought about by the ABGC’s exposure of numerous errors in the second draft report and subsequent addendum, both of which were released in 2004.
BA has experienced difficulties in getting information from the Philippines that would assist in determining the level of risk imported bananas would pose to Australian flora.
Whilst it is vitally important that the IRA is done properly, it is equally as important to undertake the IRA as quickly as possible to minimise the level of uncertainty that is responsible for sapping investor confidence and stifling innovation.
When the Philippines is unable or unwilling to provide information requested of it in supportof its import application, BA should assign a highly conservative value to that element of the IRA and move on. Five years of industry uncertainty is long enough.
Imports Committee
The Imports Committee did not meet this year. The committee is responsible for developing the industry’s import strategy and is anticipating a very active year in 2006.
Fighting Fund Levy
The Banana Industry Fighting Fund (BIFF) has remained in place throughout 2005, having been reinstated on 1 March 2004 at a rate of 5 cents per 13kg carton (plus GST). The ABGC believes that Philippine bananas pose an unacceptable risk to our domestic banana industry and the BIFF funding allows us to develop the technical arguments to support our case.
As ABGC President, I thank all growers who continue to support the BIFF levy and provide us with the resources to keep our industry free of the world’s worst banana pests and diseases.
PHA
Plant Health Australia (PHA) manages agreed plant health programs on behalf of all members to deliver a coordinated and effective national plant health framework for preventing and responding to exotic and other emergency pests.
PHA has appointed Lindy Hyam as chief executive officer following the resignation of inaugural chief, Neil Fisher.
Ms Hyam has held a number of CEO roles and directorships over the span of her career to date, including both government and not-for-profit organisations in agriculture, international education, local government and business. She was previously the executive director of the Statutory Authority, Horticultural Research and Development Corporation and non executive director New Zealand Crown Research Institute of Horticulture and Food.
The council retains membership of PHA on behalf of all Australian banana growers.
Horticulture Australia Council
As the national peak industry representative body of Australian horticultural industries, HAC is responsible for ensuring that issues of concern to Australian horticulture are heard and taken seriously in Canberra.
HAC has appointed a new chief executive officer, Kris Newton, who brings with her a wealth of experience in crucial areas such as lobbying, policy development, strong budgeting and office management skills.
HAC has played a key role in lobbying for a mandatory code of conduct and has been the capable vehicle through which a common position for horticulture has been developed.
There is no question that on across-industry issues of national significance, the development of a common position that can be communicated clearly to government provides the best opportunity to achieve a favourable outcome.
Horticulture Australia Limited
HAL has made significant gains this year in terms of streamlining its administrative processes and delivering a favourable funding environment for its members. HAL plans further reform including a revised project services administration fee structure in June 2006 that will ensure all HAL members pay the same flat rate for HAL project administration. 2005 saw the resignation of HAL Chairman Ian Donges and appointment of existing HAL Director Dr Nigel Steele Scott to the position.
Australian Bananas Magazine
Our flagship publication, Australian Bananas Magazine, provides a summary of local and international banana news as well as a forum for distributing updates on the latest banana research. Australian Bananas also keeps growers up-to-date with the latest marketing and promotions activity and market throughput data.
Any industry publication is only as good as its content and we are fortunate to retain strong support from the promotions and research fraternity who contribute quality articles.
The role of HAL in the success of Australian Bananas must be acknowledged, through its financial contribution to the popular R&D section. We also appreciate the strong support received from our commercial advertisers this year.
Website
The website continues to play an important role as an industry communication tool because it is now possible to access weekly banana carton consignment figures for north Queensland, all of ABGC’s media releases, industry statistics, banana promotions activity updates, research project results and other pertinent information about our industry that may be interest to growers, researchers or other visitors to the site.
Banana Congress
The Sixth Australian Banana Industry Congress was held at the Cairns International Hotel from 10-13 August 2005. This year’s event included a banana field day at the Tully showgrounds that provided the locals with an opportunity to experience first-hand some of the excitement and activity that characterises this landmark industry event.
The quality of speakers and the range of topics were tremendous with a good cross-section of both on display. Congress received great support from its sponsors, including major foundation sponsor Visy Board, and major sponsors ABW, LaMana Bananas and HAL.
Congratulations to the recipients of Banana Industry Awards presented at the Banana Ball: Margaret Day, Ross Boyle, Gary McCudden and Dr Warren Hoey.
AWB/ABGC Meeting
In February the ABGC came together with the Australian Banana Wholesalers and other state banana representative bodies on the Gold Coast to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern. The meeting was productive with agreement being reached on banana promotions and a range of issues.
Banana Promotions
In 2004, the ABGC was approached by the newly formed Australian Banana Promotions Company Ltd to act as the repository for funds collected for promotions and to manage the payment of accounts.
Board Directors 2004/2005
The Board held five meetings:
27 August 04Bardon Conference Centre, Brisbane, QLD
10 December 04ABGC offices, Brisbane, QLD
17 February 05Nautilus Conference Centre, CoffsHarbour, NSW
6 May 05Gascoyne Development Commission offices, Carnarvon, WA
15 August 05Innisfail Canegrowers offices, Innisfail, QLD
Composition of the Board for 2004/05 was:
Mr PM Leahy, President
Mr M Singh, Vice President
Mr M Jackson
MrsVA Kippin-O’Connor
Mr CR MacKay
Mr M Reppel
Mr PC Bale
Mr T Day
Staff
Long time ABGC office manager Kym McMeeken resigned to pursue an account-keeping franchise. Kym joined ABGC in 1994 as a research assistant and held a number of positions since that time. Kym was a tremendous asset to the industry and whilst her resignation represents a loss, we are pleased she agreed to provide ongoing account-keeping services to the ABGC.
We welcome Jann Uhr to ABGC, whom many of you would know from her days at Growcom where she was often the first point of contact for growers.
On behalf of the Board I would like to convey my thanks to all ABGC staff for their professionalism, dedication and commitment to the running of this organisation during the past 12 months. It has been a very busy year and our staff have risen to every challenge thrown at the. Well done team.
Acknowledgements
On behalf of the Council, I thank the following organisations for assistance during the past 12 months:
Bananas NSW
Growcom
Banana Growers Queensland
Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
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