The Passion Vine
The Passion Vine – September 2013
Post Office Box 321 Pomona QLD 4568
Executive Report
Moving right along, the PAI Annual General Meeting and Annual Levy Payers’ Meeting was a huge success and an enormous thank you to Steve and Trish for the excellent set up and food they supplied on the day. They were excellent hosts and had obviously put a huge amount of time and effort into making it all run so smoothly with heaps of food and drink to keep the travellers happy! Full reports on pages 6&7, 10-13 The IAC meeting that was held the day prior at QT resort in Port Douglas had an agenda nearly as long as the Senate ballot paper, but Dianne and Jane made sure all was covered in a reasonable time. IAC
September 2013 Newsletter of Passionfruit Australia Incorporated
By Jann Bonsall The sun is shining and even though the market has been bordering on oversupply it has been buoyed by a very successful marketing program. With growers starting to pull out old vines making way for this season’s planting what we need is a bit of rain. Every time I come to write this column I think I should try NOT to refer to the weather but every quarter there’s always too much or not enough of something to force comment. I’m leaving it to the regional reports to do that this time!
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members made a beeline for the bar followed up with dinner mingling with fellow growers and supply chain partners who had come from Sydney, NNSW and SEQ to be part of the annual social events and meetings. It has been a busy quarter with meetings and teleconferences covering a whole range of issues, most of which will be referred to in the following pages. The PAI Executive held a teleconference 30th July with discussions focussing on issues such as PLU numbers, the PAI Breeding Program, plant royalties and the seemingly alarming decline in plant orders and the cost recovery being charged to PAI by Levy Revenue Services for the collection of our levies. Other meetings that have been attended include: Biosecurity Roundtable in Canberra where discussions concentrated on communication between Department and industry to ensure better outcomes for exports and imports of agricultural products, DAFF Q Biosecurity Workshop in August that
outlined the proposed new Queensland legislation and the ramifications for industry, Tropical Hort Group meeting in Brisbane covering issues such as federal policy issues, climate change, biosecurity legislation and food safety and a presentation by John Chapman, MD AgriScience Qld HAL Members meeting in Brisbane in response to correspondence from Minister Joel Fitzgibbon, DAFF outlining the requirements of the HAL Review due May 2014. In February a combination of the PAI Executive and IAC took part in a Crisis Management workshop conducted by Richard Bennett from HAL. Richard certainly brought to everyone’s attention issues that can dramatically affect any industry any time. PAI now has a Crisis Management Committee and program in place, and enclosed with this edition of Passion Vine you will find a Grower’s Communication Strategy which outlines the appropriate response for all crisis situations. So as you can see, your industry
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