The Australian melon industry says a recent trip to the United States has shown that there is a massive opportunity to collaborate with growers and leaders from overseas.
Melons Australia led the USA Study Tour that aligned with Seed Week in Davis, California and Chief Executive Officer Johnathon Davey says it was a great way to strengthen the relationship with counterparts across the other side of the world.
"It also gave us a great opportunity to bring together folks from the Australian melon industry to create stronger bonds between growers, researchers and industry leaders," he said. "It dawned on us when we were over there, the sheer size and scale of operations over in the US. We met with one grower who produced almost a quarter of what we do as a country, in just watermelons. That put things into perspective that we are not in competition with these guys. We have a few markets where we are side by side, but there is little market competition between Australian and USA melons. It highlights that there's a massive opportunity to collaborate across borders and Melons Australia is looking to do more with other country's peak bodies in the melon space."
The tour began in San Francisco and also included Davis, Woodland, Fresno, Manteca and Salinas. The seed companies present their variety trials to growers from across the United States, Mexico, Central America and beyond. Participants were presented with a unique opportunity to interact directly with breeders, sample promising new watermelon and melon varieties, and discuss the specific needs of Australian growers and consumers. The tour also featured meetings with expert plant pathologists, who shared their knowledge on the history, spread, and impact of various cucurbit disease outbreaks in the United States, and discussed their research efforts to manage pathogens not yet present in Australia.
The contingent also shared the world-class food safety culture and practices implemented in Australia to support advancements in the United States. Another stop was Hazel Technologies Laboratory, where CEO Parker Booth and his team demonstrated their innovative technology for extending product shelf life. The tour was part of a Hort Innovation Melon Fund investment, using melon research and development levy and funds from the Australian Government.
But Mr Davey says a key takeaway was the re-enforcement that Australia is leading the way when it comes to food safety and compliance.
"We got a really strong impression on the level of compliance, particularly food safety requirements that we impose on our growers here in Australia being significantly higher than what is applied across the world," he said. "It is something that we should really be proud of. However, in the current economic climate, we have got cost of living pressures and continued increase in input costs, as well as the thought of the higher expenses that our growers are experiencing to make sure that they are food safety compliant and to actually be exceeding what's been implemented globally, is phenomenal. I don't think consumers are aware of this and it needs to be celebrated and promoted a little bit more."
Domestically, melon growers also came together with the vegetable and berry industries for the final 'Roadshow' of the year in Bundaberg, which was attended by more than 65 people from across the Horticulture sector.
"It was designed to be bigger and more inclusive than any of our others," he said. "The expansion of the Melon Roadshow initiative (funded by the Hort Innovation Melon Fund investment, using melon research and development levy and funds from the Australian Government) to include other sectors was largely achieved through a grant from the National Farmers' Federation National Horticulture Roadshow initiative, and that allowed us to bring vegetables and berries into the discussion. We aligned it with Agreco Australia, who are a research and development provider in the pest and disease management space and they had field trials that they walked people through, highlighting some disease concerns for melons in particular and management regimes that are in place. We also had a presentation and research and development update session, which was well received. It gave us perspective on the ground and provided insight on where we need to be setting our priorities moving forward."
Production-wise, Melons Australia says the industry is going "reasonably well", with the latest retail stats around 26.9 per cent up on the year prior in terms of direct retail sales. In the last financial year, Australia was up 28 per cent up on exports.
Mr Davey added that another important discussion from a melon industry perspective is the opportunity to support the goal of reducing food waste in half by 2030.
"For us, that is a key priority that we are working on, in terms of understanding what are some of the options," he said. "For example, value-added products or new consumables, that we can start to work with our industry on in an innovative way to make sure that we are providing new and improved offerings for consumers in the melon category as opposed to produce going to waste."
For more information
Johnathon Davey
Melons Australia
[email protected]
www.melonsaustralia.org.au