Unpacking ESG for growers
Ask around in the horticulture industry about ESG, and you'll get mixed reactions. Some growers have never come across the term, while others are already knee-deep in reporting. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, Governance – and whether we like it or not, it's becoming part of the language of trade and market access in horticulture.
So, why is horticulture getting drawn into the ESG conversation? It’s largely about market expectations. Supply chain partners—retailers, corporates, exporters, and government bodies—are under growing scrutiny from investors, consumers, and regulators. It’s no longer enough to invest in a profitable business - these groups want to know more than just financial performance. They’re asking questions about how food is grown, how workers are treated, and how businesses are run.
For growers, this can feel like familiar ground. We’ve been working with frameworks like Best Management Practices (BMPs) for decades to improve and benchmark production and for those who have been trading with retailers since Australia’s modern slavery act came into being in 2019, you would be overly familiar with needing a social compliance tick off either through SEDEX or Fair Farms.
ESG builds on the benchmarking idea, but with a broader lens. It looks not just at environmental factors like water use or emissions, or even employee conditions but goes much further into diversity of directors, workplace culture, governance, and community impact. And another big difference to our BMP’s – the metrics on which the data is based - it’s not sector-specific – it’s a global framework used across industries.
Still, many growers see ESG reporting as another layer of red tape—too complex, too removed from daily reality, and unlikely to reflect the genuine work already being done on-farm. That concern is real. Reporting requirements can pile up, especially when they’re designed without practical insight into how growing businesses actually operate.
That’s why there’s value in building ESG tools that work for growers. The HortESG platform, developed by Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers (QFVG), is one attempt to respond to that. Rather than add to the burden, it aims to simplify the process and give growers a way to track and report their sustainability efforts on their own terms.
It’s not about meeting a checklist. It’s about growers having a credible way to tell their story—backed by data, aligned with market needs, and still grounded in the reality of running a business.
HortESG is our way of giving growers a tool to tell their story in their way. If you have been asked for an ESG or sustainability report recently and don’t know where to start – please reach out or come and have a chat with us at Hort Connections next week.
