Issue: 61 | APRIL 2021 BANANAS NO MERCY NIRAN’S TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION WORKER SHORTAGES PAGE 6 PROMISING VARIETAL RESULTS PAGES 16–17 CONGRESS NOT TO BE MISSED PAGES 26-30 abcg.org.au 1 GET MOVING ON NATIONAL BANANA DAY Find out more @AustralianBananas EDITORIAL Sonia Campbell 0428 038 330 [email protected] Amy Spear 0439 005 946 [email protected] ART DIRECTION & DESIGN Impress Art Graphic Designs 0438 176280 impressart.com.au PUBLISHER Australian Banana Growers’ Council Inc. ABN: 60 381 740 734 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Jim Pekin INDUSTRY STRATEGY MANAGER Michelle McKinlay 10 R&D MANAGER Dr Rosie Godwin EXECUTIVE OFFICER Leanne Erakovic ADVERTISING CONTENTS Issue: 61 | APRIL 2021 Hilary Opray [email protected] BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chairman Stephen Lowe REGULARS BANANA FEATURE Deputy Chairman CEO’s Report 4 Five years of TR4 12-15 Leon Collins Chair’s Report 5 Panama TR4 moving forward 16-17 Treasurer Ben Franklin Banana levy rate 4 Staying ahead of the game - grower profile 24 Directors QBAN list 10 Tribute to dedicated FNQ banana grower 30 Stephen Spear Under the Microscope 23 Paul Inderbitzin RESEARCH Jade Buchanan Marketing update 34 Doriana Mangilli CJ19 mutagenesis trial update 18 Andrew Serra INDUSTRY NEWS Unlocking secrets to Panama suppression 19 ALL MAIL TO COVID-19 6-7 TR4 variety results from SJ trial site 20-21 PO Box 309 BRISBANE MARKET Science awards 8 Panama disease ‘Lessons from Laos’ 22 QLD 4106 Plastic waste disposal 8 AUSTRALIAN BANANAS National mapping program 9 WATER QUALITY Australian Bananas is published three times a year Innovative run-off solutions 25 by the Australian Banana Growers’ Council Inc. as Improving export supply chain 10 manager of the Banana Industry Communications ABGC WA director retires 11 Record keeping benefits to bottom line 26 Project. This project is funded by Horticulture Congress in Cairns 2021 27 Fertiliser planning 26 Innovation Australia (Hort Innovation) using the banana levy and funds from the Australian Coffs by-pass nearing resolution 28 BANANA EVENTS Government. New Industry development officer for NSW 29 SJ Field Walk 39 DISCLAIMER New staff join ABGC 32 Horticulture Innovation Australia (Hort Innovation) and ABGC make no representations and expressly New report forecasts bright banana future 32 disclaim all warranties (to the extent permitted by Agrichemical challenges 35 law) about the accuracy, completeness, or currency of information in this magazine. Users of this material Banana Bunchy Top challenges 36-37 should take independent action to confirm any Why planting material matters 38 information in this magazine before relying on it in any way. Reliance on any information provided by Hort Innovation and ABGC is entirely at your own risk. Hort Innovation and ABGC are not responsible for, Front page: Charles Camulgia on his Innisfail banana property in Far and will not be liable for, any loss, damage, claim, North Queensland where he lost 100 per cent of his bunched fruit in expense, cost (including legal costs) or other liability Cyclone Niran in March. arising in any way (including from Hort Innovation’s and ABGC’s or any other person’s negligence or otherwise) from your use or non-use of the magazine, or from reliance on information contained in the magazine or that Hort Innovation and ABGC provide to you by any other means. 8 27 47 /abgc | /abgc | abgc.org.au 3 COMMENT CEO COLUMN Jim Pekin, CEO Cyclone and However, the flipside is the banana industry is to work on banana farms. We have also asked entering its second year of worker shortages. And the Government to assist repatriations with an floods just as vaccines roll out around the world, we are exchange of job-ready SWP workers. witnessing the escalation of COVID-19 on Australia’s At the time of writing At the time of this article, the Queensland doorstep in PNG. this report, the ABGC Government was considering regional quarantine was aware of severe Also, cases at the Cairns Hospital at the time of facilities as one alternative to meet the demand for flooding problems writing are a reminder of the virus’s threat to thousands of SWP/PLS workers across horticulture. facing growers in banana businesses. We have requested that this option be progressed northern New South Wales and were continuing to as a matter of priority. keep them updated on impacts we had been made Since March 2020, ABGC has been calling for aware of and resources available to them if they reliable and safe pathways for growers to access ABGC continues to advocate for the needs of required assistance. staff. banana growers during this difficult period. However, the Government’s priority to keep The Queensland pilot Seasonal Worker Program Similarly, we are continuing to lobby for Australians safe from COVID means that the Health and Pacific Labour Scheme (SWP/PLS) has enabled government assistance for Far North Queensland authorities have more clout on which and how 948 workers (under these visas), so far, with growers severely affected by Cyclone Niran. While workers can enter the country than what industry around 25% of those workers recruited to work on ABGC appreciates that both the Federal and State prefers. Agriculture Ministers responded to a request to see banana farms in Far North Queensland. Another 144 workers were due to arrive before the end the devastation of TC Niran first-hand, by visiting Please read our regular e-bulletins and of March to work in other commodities (not in the North in the days following the severe weather visit abgc.org.au for all worker updates. bananas, initially at least). event, assistance offered by both governments, at TR4 Program Transition the time this magazine had gone to print, fell short Acknowledging the ongoing worker shortage, on of expectations. March 3 this year, Queensland Agriculture Minister Growers will have noted from previous news Mark Furner announced on-farm and hotel that the Queensland Government and ABGC At a meeting organised by ABGC at South Johnstone quarantine would continue. have entered into a Cost Sharing Deed and a on March 16, growers expressed the urgent need Memorandum of Agreement until June 2023 to From the outset, the ABGC advised the State for some form of wage subsidy assistance to help in co-fund and transition Biosecurity Queensland’s TR4 Government on-farm quarantine does not suit the their overall recovery. Program to ABGC leadership. majority of banana growers and hotel quarantine is Worker shortages very limited at cohorts of workers. We have asked ABGC appointed an Industry Transition Leader, the Government to safely increase the scale of Geoff Wilson to develop and then implement Just over a year ago the World Health Organisation the SWP/PLS model in an efficient manner to get the transition of the Program to industry. Geoff declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since then, thousandds of workers into Australia. started work on 15 March 2021 and is keen to hear Australia’s efforts to suppress the spread of growers’ views on how the Program should look in a COVID-19 have been described internationally as a This includes Government providing quarantine bit over two years’ time. (See article on page 34) success story. options for the large numbers of workers needed What the TR4 Program looks like after June 2023 will be dependent on what industry wants and where the disease has spread to by that stage. Geoff has acknowledged that various people and organisations have done a remarkable job in containing the disease so far. His job now is to work with and for industry for sustainable long-term solutions that have practical viability. Banana levy reminder The total compulsory levy remains at 2.19c/kg (as per table below). The ABGC has heard reports that some growers are still paying the EPPR Levy for the Freckle Response. This levy was taken from 0.75c/kg to zero from 1 July ABGC Chair Stephen Lowe (front) with Innisfail banana growers severely affected by Cyclone Niran (back 2019. Please check this aligns with your payment L-R) Kuldip Singh, Varinder Singh and Balbir Singh. slips. 4 AUSTRALIAN BANANAS MAGAZINE | APRIL 2021 COMMENT CHAIR COLUMN Stephen Lowe, ABGC Chair At the end of 2020, I (roads/crossings) in order to get back onto their The ABGC continues to lobby government to assist think most growers farms. these impacted growers with wage assistance to had high hopes that In the wake of both these events, the ABGC was help retain staff, which was the case following 2021 would somehow doing all it could to keep growers informed of any Cyclone Yasi. wave a magic wand government assistance that became available, as Already battling ongoing low prices and worker and bring with it some well as lobby governments for emergency relief and shortages, and now facing months without positive prosperity, to (in the case of Far Northern growers) the need for an income stream, affected growers say wage counteract a year we’d urgent wage assistance. assistance will at least go some way towards their all rather forget. In the days following TC Niran in the Far North, long-term recovery and will ensure they have a After a tumultuous 12 months that included a I toured the area to speak with some of these workforce when back in production. pandemic, changing consumer trends, worker affected growers. I can honestly say that I was shortages, continued poor prices and severe left shocked and saddened by the extent of crop Congress 2021 weather events, impacting growers nationally, many damage. Some growers were left with 100 per cent For growers recovering from the forementioned were left to ponder how much more we could damage to bunched plants, while others sustained natural disasters of late, our upcoming Congress is continue to take.