Everything is big in Australia

By Andrew Bristol

Everything is big in Australia. That was hammered home to me when I attended Hort Connections in Melbourne in early June, along with 4000 other delegates.  

At the conference, it was also clear that things are different in Australia, due to its size. While many of the challenges are the same – climate change, falling consumption, waste, and the relationship with the big supermarkets – the solutions seem to be more tangible, because the industry is bigger.

Take waste. The key statistic here is that 22% of fresh produce is ‘wasted’ at the farm. Numerous speakers, attendees and a sponsor of the gala dinner – for 1400 people – were involved in the industry that has developed in Australia to reduce waste and find uses for it.

The food at the gala dinner was superb. Each dish was prepared using powder ‘made from excess Aussie veggies’. The powder was incorporated into the bread, butter, as a rub on the chicken, and as an ingredient in the sauces. I could not taste the powder and indeed, the powders are being marketed as ‘the easy way to boost your veggie intake. Made using only excess Aussie veggies, they also help reduce food waste’. In other words, they don’t seem to be there to add flavour.

I know of at least one major vegetable grower in New Zealand that is diversifying into powders. However, I contend that to make a real impact on reducing on-farm waste in New Zealand and make a buck from it, you would need to collect the waste on a nationwide basis in order to centralise the production. But in New Zealand, the cost of collection would be prohibitive.

Lastly on the subject of food waste, I met a person who runs a start up being supported by Woolies (as they call it in Australia). This start up’s aim is to find a use for food waste, by finding a market for it while it is still fresh, or finding a processor who will take it on. This ‘matching’ is achieved through a website, where both sellers and buyers state their requirements. It’s kind of like TradeMe for food waste. 

Falling consumption

Falling consumption was another frequently discussed subject. Ninety-four percent of Australians do not eat the recommended serving of vegetables (186g if fresh vegetables a day), which is worse than New Zealand statistics suggest. And the speakers said due to the cost-of-living crisis, consumption of vegetables in Australia has fallen in the last two consecutive years. 

While I am in two minds about boosting consumption through powders, it is certainly a thing in Australia, as are big marketing campaigns to increase consumption, one of which is akin to our own ‘Add One More Vegetable’ initiative.

Due to everything being big in Australia, it is very easy to feel quite provincial. I sat through a panel discussing the importance of brand to increase consumption. I was blown away by the initiatives underway and the fact that they are supported by so much data about consumer behaviour. Basically, these marketing experts (who supported quite niche sounding family farms or retailers) could show cause and effect. They said they would not invest in a campaign if they were not confident in a result, based on previous experience.

That said, one of these marketers was very direct in their messaging. Twice they compelled everyone in the audience to ‘just do something to promote the industry, because if we all just do something and keep on doing it, we will create momentum, which is our only chance to make a difference against the likes of Coca Cola’.

Another marketer cited how a month long, A$60,000 social media and public relations campaign boosted banana consumption in Victoria after a quiet month. I use this example at the risk of contradicting my ‘everything is big in Australia’ theme. However, there is another difference in Australia, which I also believe comes about because of size. The horticulture industry all works together – collaborates – in the belief that everything that is done to promote the industry and increase consumption, benefits the whole industry, no matter who is doing it and for what produce.

Lastly, regarding falling consumption but also the positive impact of size, it was said that if every Australian added one more serve of fresh fruit or vegetables to their daily diet, it would boost the industry by A$8 billion.

So many speakers, so much thought-provoking content

It is hard not to be overwhelmed by a conference of this size, particularly when every topic is relevant to the challenges we face in New Zealand. 

Australia is very aware of what is happening in the European Union (EU) in terms of increased compliance and reporting, because of the flow on effect in Australia, even if the farmer (growers tend to be called farmers in Australia) grows only for the domestic market. (Note, Australia still sees Southeast Asia as its biggest growth market.)  

One presenter said how they felt that Europe was doing better to promote consumption, because their campaigns focused on ‘touching the heart’ and telling the grower/farmer story. Another said that ideology was replacing evidence, and the industry talk more about how fruit and vegetables are grown, in the context of providing a solution to climate change. 

However, a recurring theme was that most consumers are not prepared to pay a premium for produce produced sustainably, and they certainly won’t be prepared to pay a premium in the future. In terms of sustainably, one of the very large growers said they were doing everything they could to be sustainable (and had done so for more than a decade) because it attracted the supermarkets. ‘We weren’t going to wait around for regulation to require it,’ they said. Again, scale supports this approach: when you’re seriously big, you have bargaining power.

Another grower farming more than 400 acres had broken the farm into 30 acre ‘farms’, so if something went wrong, rather than revert to chemicals, they just left the crop in the ground. Over the past decade, this grower family had moved its philosophy to sustainably and ‘ensuring that the land is in a better place when we leave it’. But I did not get the impression that they were leaving any time soon, the business having been established by the father in the late 50s.

This gentleman was in the background during this farm visit. His sons presented and he said very little. However, the smile on his face said everything. He was so very proud. Back at the conference, I observed the family again – father, two sons, and two of the sons’ sons. So proud, but also so humble.

Which was not always how things came across at the conference, but that may just have been because of how provincial I was feeling. Because in reality, the New Zealand horticulture industry has a good reputation in Australia and we were made to feel most welcome. Plus, without exception, everyone said if we felt they could help our industry with our challenges, all we had to do is ask.

I close this reflection on Australia by quoting an extremely successful businessman presenter, whose philosophy and advice to the Australia horticulture industry was this: ‘if your idea is good enough and you are best in class, you will find someone to fund it’.

Again, I am sure scale comes into this equation. However, in many ways, the New Zealand horticulture industry is best in class, and we have good ideas. So, picking up on another strong theme at the conference, collaboration: let’s all work together – industry as well as government and regulators – for the benefit of the whole horticulture industry, and at the same time, New Zealand’s food security, environment and economy.