Even for a person usually interested in politics of all kinds, up until last week I hadn’t heard of the Dutch political group – the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB). An interesting and highly relevant story, its history, and potentially its future, is one worth following.

Like the Anzac soldier and bronzed surf lifesaver, the farmer holds a special place in the Australian imagination. Through hard work on a harsh and often unforgiving continent, the farmer cultivated and fed a nation. Or so the story goes…

There is to be a further strengthening of the voice of horticulture in Queensland this year with Bree Watson, Chief Executive Officer of Bundaberg Fruit & Vegetable Growers (BFVG) voted in as the new Chair of the Queensland Horticulture Council (QHC).

Forget the 'Triple Bottom Line' of People, Planet and Profit, the only way to view sustainability in agribusiness is with a very clear profit first mentality and mindset. The very straightforward explanation for this order is… without profitability growers cannot adequately support and address the other two. Simple.

The importance of each and every link of the horticultural supply chain is most clearly evident when a link is broken.

If there was ever a time for the horticulture industry to come out firing on all cylinders, it’s now. No matter which way you look, there are several trains heading down the track towards us and we need to do whatever we can to derail them.

This past weekend saw almost 15,000 people descend on Chinchilla to partake in some crazy, messy, old-fashioned fun. For the last 29 years locals have been organising this festival to not only showcase their fruit but to showcase their town.

This week our Head of Engagement and Advocacy, Angela, one of our Growcom staff members, Brock and myself, spent a day in the Granite Belt.  We met with financial managers, HR managers, innovators, inventors, scientists, investors, property owners and agronomists. Well, we actually met with some of our amazing growers, who are all those things and more and boy did we learn a lot!

The mission:

• Kick off 2023 as the Year of Horticulture in Queensland.

• Introduce a new arm of Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers (QFVG).

• Celebrate, Educate and Advocate for our growers.

The plan: build a pineapple farm overnight in the middle of Brisbane in order to attract peak media and consumer attention.

In Australia there are basically two ways you can employ someone, either through a modern award or an Enterprise Agreement (EA).

122 different modern awards exist as an attempt to cover most employees across most industries, whilst EA’s are used when employees or employers are seeking greater flexibility than these set award conditions.

Last week’s severe weather event in North and Central Queensland was the first event we had experienced since the process of disaster response and recovery had come into full effect.

As a previous elected member, I can personally attest to Queenslanders’ long held dissatisfaction and negative attitudes towards government. It truly doesn’t matter what government is in power, or who is the representative at the time, there seems to be plenty of complaints, distrust and all-round discontent. In fact, one of the traits that seems to unite Australians is complaining about politicians.

Someone asked me late last year if accommodation for workers in horticulture was still an issue. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. Of course, there is still an accommodation crisis for seasonal workers!

While most of us see the rains as a blessing, there are commodities in agriculture that go against the wind and need longer, dryer spells.

What can be one grower’s good fortune can be their neighbour’s hell.

As this year is fast drawing to a close, I’d like to wish you all a Cherry Christmas and a productive, profitable 2023.

As we prepare to celebrate this Christmas season with our family and friends, many of us are currently planning out our incredibly colourful fruit bowl displays, seeking unusual salad combinations to serve with Christmas ham, and googling vegetarian and vegan recipes for our guests.

2023 marks Growcom’s 100 years in operation and what a journey it’s been! Multiple structural changes, name changes, address changes, thousands of staffing changes and strategic direction changes not to mention 100 years of dealing with various political, social and environmental issues. One thing that hasn’t changed has been our commitment to the industry we are passionate about.

2022 is the year that will most likely be remembered for one previously unassuming salad vegetable. A lettuce priced at ten bucks was just the tip of the iceberg for growers who faced repeated, devasting flooding in our usually vibrant horticulture food bowls in northern, central and southern Queensland.

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of listening to Cheryl Kallisch Gordon Head of Strategy Rabobank, Australian/New Zealand explain her understanding on global happenings and their impact on Australian agriculture.

Houston, we have a problem!

Let me rephrase that, Australia, we have a problem, and it’s a big one!

It seems that we’ve forgotten that in order to employ people, to give people “secure jobs, with better pay”, that first, our businesses need to turn a profit.

National days of this and that are popping up on our calendars more and more each year. Why? Because they work. Having a day dedicated to a particular product, service, social issue or in this case sector, forces people to stop and think about how their lives relate.