Recently, we had to describe horticulture in brief. This is tricky when representing 104 commodities, so we went back to basics. Horticulture is the branch of plant agriculture dealing with garden crops, generally fruits, vegetables, nuts, flowers, turf, and ornamental plants.

The horticulture industry in Queensland is not only made up of a diverse array of commodities but has a number of regional grower groups who each strongly represent their own agendas to further the industry’s progress.  

Christmas eve last year I had a grower call me about a request to supply product during the Christmas period which would have seen them lose a great deal of money as picking, packing, and transporting costs would have all been incurred with public holiday rates.

When we self-proclaimed this year as “The Year of Horticulture” we hoped we would be able to effectively celebrate the work our growers do, educate consumers and advocate to decision makers. We also hoped we could bring some fun and positivity into our industry, an industry which needs to shake off an image problem.

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!