What’s going to hit next?

Welcome to the end of March 2021 GIA enews.  After the industry and all of Australia worked its way through the fires, floods, drought and storms; a global pandemic and now many have experienced the worst rain and floods in decades across NSW and SE Queensland.  Let’s hope there is no What’s next?

Contained in this newsletter and provided earlier in the week are the industry ‘Natural Disaster Support Resources’ for flood specifically.  In a recently completed project titled Nursery industry natural disaster risk mitigation and recovery plan, led by Nursery & Garden Industry Queensland (NGIQ) resources to equip production nurseries with the tools to improve the management of climate threats and risks have been developed.  A series of checklists on six identified natural hazards for nurseries that are now available: bushfire, flood, frost, heatwave, hail and storm and tropical cyclone or severe winds.  These may help to prepare for What’s next?

Greenlife Industry Australia Board Meeting

The GIA Board met ‘face to face’ in Melbourne for the first time since the National Conference held in Perth during March last year.  Alistair Hill, GIA Director and Chairman of Immij kindly hosted the meeting where the the Board was provided with a tour of Immij during the day.

Representatives of the NGIV Board, including Simon Gomme (President), Matt Davis, Matthew Mills and Carl Soderlund, attended the meeting.  The discussion between the respective Board representatives centered on the role and membership fees of GIA.  Simon advised that the key areas of focus for GIA from NGIV’s perspective are Advocacy, Biosecurity and Staff and Training.  Some of the specific areas discussed were plant material and specialist substrate importation, plant biosecurity, minor use permit applications, ‘promotion’ of the industry to attract the next generation of staff and ensuring greater alignment between GIA and State NGI activities.

The GIA Board worked through the five strategic imperatives of Advocacy, Promotion, Sustainability, Careers and Funding.  There are many activities progressing in each of these areas, some are detailed in articles within this newsletter.

GIA and NGI Executive Meeting

I convened the fortnightly meeting with the State NGI Executives today. 

The aims of the meetings are to have a general update on activities and to identify key issues to be address across the country.  It is an excellent opportunity for sharing ideas, assessing opportunities and developing approaches to ‘tackle’ challenges.  Some of the areas we are going to address with working groups are the Nursery Award, retail accreditation and Trade Day management going forward.  Please contact me if you would be interested in being involved in any of these working groups.

Industry events and interactions are returning to some sort of normality with NGIQ Green Expo held earlier in March, Perth Garden Festival being planned for late April/early May, Trade Days being held in a number of capital cities and regionally, next generation, grower and retail events and the Tree and Shrub Growers held an evening at Alowyn Gardens near Yarra Glen on Tuesday night.  It is well worth a visit if you are in the Yarra Valley.  It may take some members in NSW and Queensland to again get back to normality as they wait for the water to subside and can assess the damage and what repair work is required.

Nursery Levy Strategic Investment Plan

As advised last month, Hort Innovation is in the process of developing the next Strategic Investment Plant (SIP) for the nursery industry.  The challenge here is to determine what are the key areas of R&D and marketing investment for the almost $20m. over the next five year.

The four areas being proposed by Hort Innovation for investment at this stage are: 1. Data and Insights; 2. Productivity Gains; 3 Demand Creation; and 4. Extension and Capacity Building.  More detail will be provided as it is received.

These are obvious and continuing areas that need addressing.  We need to ensure that the right mechanisms and processes are in place so they are done as effectively, efficiently and timely as possible to delivery outputs, benefits and value for levy payers and the industry.

Plastic Plant Packaging Recycling

To help us determine ‘What’s next?’ for the plastic plant packaging recycling project, please refer to the article and complete the survey on ‘What do we do with the pot?'.  We need growers, retailers and consumers to support this initiative as we determine how best to manage plastic recycling for the industry.
 

If require any further information, have an interest, have advice, want to provide a comment and/or be involved in addressing any of these challenges or opportunities, please contact me at ceo@greenlifeindustry.com.au