Food trends and avocado

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

In some editions of Guacamole, we share stories of avocado in popular culture, as a means of highlighting our product’s place in the everyday lives of not just Australians, but consumers around the world.

The Aussie breakfast favourite of smashed avo has become so popular Coles rolled it out among 75 new products in an aggressive ‘convenience’ strategy, and we’ve all seen avocado on pizza and the placement of the avocado displays near the front of the fruit & veg section to lure shoppers in.

But what do avocado chocolates, Christmas decorations and avo-centric cafes tell us about the future for our industry?

It’s all good… but we have to stay on the sunny side of the fence in consumers’ minds.

The downside of interest in ag

We live in a world of instant news, cooking shows for every interest and skill level, artisan products, organic products, slow food, food miles, farm to plate, buy local, and food provenance.

As a species, we may have always been keenly interested in food but after a period of disconnect, as more and more of us became urban than rural, the interest in food is back. And it’s back because some clever types are bringing it back under the umbrella of survival of the species.

Want to stop climate change? No beef. Want to save biodiversity? No mono-cropping. Want to hurt drug cartels? No avocados. Want to save water for desolate communities? No avocados. Want to stop deforestation? No avocados.

As we report regularly in Guacamole, avocado is a cultural expression in itself these days. Avocado pillowcases, inflatable pool toys, shirts, mugs, Easter eggs (the fastest-selling Easter egg in the 114-year history of Waitrose no less, so popular they brought it back for Christmas 2019) and Christmas decorations are offered not as a passing fad or joke gift, but as items seriously coveted.

However, we do need to be aware of changing consumer expectations, including transparency. No, we don’t operate feedlots, but we do use land and water, and our social licence is being questioned in some areas already. There are cafes in the UK that (even as there are others where avocado is the primary ingredient in Amsterdam, New York, London and Tokyo). The reasoning for the ban by a small number of UK-based cafes involves water use, food miles and the infiltration of criminal cartels in growing regions such as Mexico.

Now, I hear you say, that’s a long way from here but we do live (and grow our avocados) on the driest continent on the planet (well, second-driest but I don’t think we’ll be planting avo trees in Antarctica any time soon).

A 2007 survey study by Food Standards Australia (PDF link) found that while 49% of Australians paid a medium level of attention to a healthy diet while grocery shopping and cooking, this was of less concern than issues such as drought/water shortages and pollution/environmental issues, but more of a concern than food safety (more on that below). Remember, this was more than a decade ago and there has been much more debate about a changing climate (not to mention a few droughts and floods) since then. A 2014 CSIRO survey on climate adaptation and consumers found 86% of people believed climate change was happening (they just varied between whether it was a “natural cycle” or “man-made”).

“Over half of those surveyed agree or strongly agree that the threat of climate change has made them look for things they can address and change in their everyday lives as well as think differently about what is acceptable and sustainable with respect to products, packaging and consumption – both relatively ‘easy’ to achieve without causing much disruption in day-to-day living,” the CSIRO survey found.

Of those changes, consumers reducing their own water use was the common response (43%) among those surveyed.

The World Avocado Organization recently came out with its own statement about avocado and water use, but in Australia, we see little benefit from playing one part of agriculture against another. Instead, there are a range of positive messages we can share with our increasingly interested consumers:

  • avocados are a healthy and nutritious part of the diet
  • avocados contribute significantly to regional economies
  • generate high seasonal employment
  • horticulture in Australia generates the highest GVP per hectare at $31,486, and the value of avocado production is actually higher again (possibly as high as $57,000/ha in 2017/18)
  • growers continuously monitor and improve their irrigation efficiency because no-one wants to waste such a precious resource
  • growers are proactive in their water efficiency, from the use of organic mulch to retain soil moisture, to high tech monitoring ensuring only what’s needed is applied
  • we plan to make sure everyone can continue to enjoy their #smashedavo.

If we go back to that 2014 CSIRO survey, consumers have already told us 49% of them are very likely or likely to continue to support industries that inform them (the consumer) about what industry is doing. Especially if we focus on what they find important: managing the cost of living, health, economic stability, and maintaining the consumer’s way of life.

And it’s not just water

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to have spread to Australian Twitter users (yet), but there have been two food safety issues involving avocado and listeria recently. The US listeria outbreak from March 2019 and the US Food and Drug Administration’s findings of listeria on avocado skins (December 2018) are both still making the rounds in the US. With avocados, apparently no news is too old to be repeated over, and over, and over again. It doesn’t matter how the listeria got there, the fact that the words ‘listeria’ and ‘avocado’ are mentioned in the same sentence is a concern for the avocado industry, anywhere in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou Lou Lou is a general twitter user who was reporting March’s US outbreak as news in June 2019, and the text of this WebMD (three million followers) tweet regularly shows up, for example, this example from PlanetUSA (a Chicado-based person) in November this year. While PlanetUSA has less than 3,000 followers, there’s a lot of accounts just like theirs on Twitter. As for Quartz (with 380,000 followers on Twitter), they also tweeted this in November with a link to, you guessed it, their December 2018 story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s been reported this year (2019) that two-thirds of Europeans changed their consumption behaviour because of news about a food risk.

A Eurobarometer survey by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) found two-thirds of Europeans (66%) have changed their consumption after receiving information about a food risk. For 33% the change was permanent; for the other 33% only for a while. Changes in consumption behaviour are more common among women, those in the middle age bands, and those with higher levels of education.

What does this mean for us?

As an industry, we simply cannot be lax about our food safety standards from the orchard to the consumer’s plate, and we also can’t be lax about the perception of our food safety, about the sustainability of our orchards, about our place in the community and about our willingness to always engage with our consumers.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Labour hire and responsible sourcing

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

As many of you are no doubt aware, labour conditions in the horticultural industry have been under a lot of public scrutiny recently. In response, our major supermarkets have begun introducing responsible sourcing programs, including labour hire, while there has been another round of media about labour shortages and worker conditions.

Labour shortages

Earlier in the year, we distributed a National Farmers’ Federation survey on the farm workforce. This survey found the high volumes of low-skilled workers, needed for short periods of time in the horticulture industry, were going unfilled. According to the survey results, single-farm losses due to labour shortages were as high as $2 million.

As reported in AustralianFarmers, typically, international workers take up farm work via a Working Holidaymaker Visa (often used by backpackers) or the Seasonal Worker Programme, which provides employment opportunities to citizens of Pacific countries and Timor Leste.

However, only 12% of survey respondents used the Seasonal Worker Programme, with most choosing to hire directly, and one-fifth using labour-hire contractors.

Based on the 2019 survey, 63% of respondents opted to instead employ non-residents on their farms. Many said it was necessary because permanent residents were either not available in sufficient numbers, or found farm work too difficult or not to their liking. It seems farmers perceive non-residents as more reliable, while the short-term nature of the work made it unsuitable for some Australian job seekers.

None of this is any surprise to those of us in horticulture. While horticulture offers high volume employment, it is intense and seasonal work, but doing it well, and being seen to handle employment fairly, is critical for the industry.

Of course there’s an opposing view

The Australian Workers’ Union is using an ABARES report that found only 18% of vegetable farms and 14% of fruit and nut farms had trouble filling vacancies to argue there is, in fact, no labour shortage.

In a media release, the union’s national secretary Daniel Walton said the ABARES research showed “claims of a labour shortage in horticulture” were a “fiction that is used to justify exploitative working conditions”.

“Agriculture is a vibrant and potentially high-growth industry. It should be offering quality, long-term employment, but instead it is riddled with systemic problems of low pay, wage theft, and foreign worker abuse. That abuse is enabled by shonky visa offerings like the working holiday visa,” Mr Walton said.

You can read the response from some horticultural industries in the Stock Journal, including the National Farmers’ Federation questioning the results, that are at odds with that organisation’s own findings.

Meanwhile, responsible sourcing

Coles requires all direct supplier sites to be registered on SEDEX (an international platform assessing risk in the supply chain) and Woolworths launched its Responsible Source Program in 2018, and released an addendum in February 2019 specifically for horticulture (PDF link). These all include labour requirements.

Coles expanded its activities recently, signing the Coles Ethical Retail Supply Chain Accord, with three major Australian unions. Read more. In the release, Coles Group CEO Steven Cain said the Accord would enable Coles to partner with unions to improve outcomes for workers within the horticulture supply chain, with a particular focus on labour hire organisations.

FWO declares horticulture “a priority”

Labour hire issues are something clearly front-of-mind for various government entities, and the wider public. The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has included horticulture and the harvest trail on its list of priorities for 2019/20.

“While it can be difficult as a regulator to find the right balance between using enforcement tools and getting a timely outcome, I am conscious that Parliament has given us increased powers and more resources, so it’s on us to send a strong message of deterrence to would-be lawbreakers,” Ombudsman Sandra Parker has said.

“The Prime Minister and the new Minister for Industrial Relations have also said that a priority for the Government is on law enforcement and adherence with Australia’s industrial relations laws.”

She said vulnerable workers would continue to be a priority for the agency.

“We will use our new powers and publicly name employers who break the law to get the message out that it is not acceptable to underpay workers or deprive them of their entitlements. Employers who do this will get caught,” Ms Parker said.

“If you are in one of our priority industries, operate a franchise system or employ large numbers of migrant workers, you should expect to hear from us.”

This was apparently no idle statement, with a Swan Hill farmer and Sydney labour hire company already fined this year.

Something to watch for this season

It seems the drug “Ice” is causing problems for some hiring seasonal workers. More here.

 

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Avo purchasing trends good news for industry

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

It’s a slow but steady climb, as the latest Nielsen data confirms more households than ever are now buying avocados each year. In the 12 months to September 2019, 72% of households bought avocados.

While this is only a 1% increase on the previous 12 months, there has actually been a reasonable increase in recent months.

Comparing 12-month periods, the number of purchasing households has gone up to 73% for the 12 months to March 2019, compared to 68% in the previous 12 months.

The Nielsen Company
Data for the 12 months ending 23 March 2019

Given domestic production continues to increase, it’s important we also see this rise in consumption, with per capita consumption in Australia now at 3.8kg/person/year, up from 3.5kg/person.

According to the latest Nielsen data, there was a national 19% increase in volume (kilogram) growth in the 12 months to September. In fact, avocados once again led the field in volume growth, with total fruit in the same period actually sitting at -3.4% (yep, that’s a minus sign there).

We’ve come a long way from avocados being an occasional treat to a shopping staple, to a situation where avocado purchaser demographics mirror those for total fruit.

In the 12 months to September 2019, on average our avocado shoppers spent $40.05 on avocados, and $3.64/buying occasion (and they had 11 buying occasions per year).

There is clearly room to move here. Australians are also super consumers of avocado at 3.8kg/per/year but there is growth potential for our industry domestically. While we are actively pursuing export markets as our domestic production continues to grow, the domestic market will always be the solid foundation of our industry.

The industry’s marketing efforts are moving to ensure purchasing trends stay positive for our industry. Now avocado is more of a staple item, we’re out to convert our infrequent buyers.

Among the focus of the latest Australian Avocados marketing campaign, are activities that seek to shift infrequent purchasers to people who see avocado as an integral part of a happy, healthy lifestyle. We want people buying avocados more than 11 times a year on average. There are 52 weeks in the year, after all.

You can click here to find the latest Harvest to Home data from The Nielsen Company.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

RDC review

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

The Australian Government has begun a review of the country’s research and development corporations (RDCs), and I will be ensuring the horticulture industry’s feedback is heard.

Avocados Australia has responded to the current discussion paper and has contributed to a National Farmers’ Federation submission to provide feedback on how the industry feels horticulture can be best served into the future.

The RDC model has served the avocado industry very well with significant gains made with the investment of the avocado levies. While the past four years have been very challenging under the latest incarnation (Hort Innovation), the model itself is good and there is no desire to dismantle it.

Industries are very different and the RDCs across agriculture are also very different. There is a view that there needs to be greater consolidation among some RDCs, but it is difficult to see how horticulture would benefit from further consolidation. The desire from government is for more cross-sector collaboration. However, from my 25 years working for and with RDCs, cross-sector R&D is not the panacea that some people think it is. There needs to be a balance between industry-specific and cross-sector R&D and all investments need to be built on a solid business case.

I was appointed by the NFF Hort Council to represent horticulture as part of the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) submission. It is important that NFF has a strong horticulture perspective on this issue. A copy of the Avocados Australia submission can be found in your Member Area, under the Agripolitical heading.

Read the Australian Government’s discussion paper by clicking here.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Our export goals

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

Avocados Australia is definitely leaning into the export market, with the highest number of market applications in the current horticulture pool awaiting prioritisation by the Australian government.

Avocados Australia is working with both the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) and Hort Innovation to progress applications for Thailand, China, India and New Zealand (revised protocol). We have already been successful in gaining access to Japan (for areas free of Queensland fruitfly).

India is a fairly recent opportunity and we are hopeful that action on our request will be initiated by the DAWE next year. However, it is a very slow process, particularly given the limited resources within the Department and we are finding the ongoing delays very frustrating.

A government delegation from India visited Australia recently and they were shown around our avocado industry in Western Australia. DAWE has advised the Indian government that avocados are the next market access priority for Australia. I believe there are great opportunities for Australian avocados in India. You can read more about the potential of the Indian market in my report in the BPR Library (under the Export heading).

As we enter our second year of access to the Japanese market, we have five packhouses and 27 growers from Western Australia, with 178 blocks, accredited for the 2019/20 season.

Meanwhile, we also have a number of growers interested in exporting to New Zealand, during that country’s low season. The New Zealand industry, which we all know has been an important supplier to Australia during the peak-demand Summer season, has also been focusing on growing its domestic market. There would appear to be some potential for Australian producers to help support that growth when New Zealand production is at its lowest, around April to July.

And, as per the Australian avocado export strategy 2019-21 (available in the BPR Library), we have no intention of overlooking our existing markets as we pursue these new opportunities.

In Singapore, the aim is to grow our market share and consolidate our existing customer base, with consolidation also the focus for Malaysia while in Hong Kong a brand-focused marketing strategy is the goal.

Earlier in the year, it was agreed to allocate increased marketing levy funds to support export promotion activities in our key Asian markets (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan).

We will be focusing on our strengths (geographic proximity and speed to market, increasing capacity, a highly regarded product and reliable supplier) to make the most of the opportunities available to us.

Key industry actions

Recent industry consultation has identified two key actions for Avocados Australia in relation to exports. Firstly, work should be undertaken to more clearly define the unique value proposition of Australian avocados in export markets and to undertake more market and consumer research in our existing markets. While we think we know, it is becoming more important for us to have objective data on this. I will be progressing this issue with Hort Innovation to commission an R&D levy-funded project.

The second issue is the need to try and accelerate our market access. While this is dependent on governments, there are some things that we can do. I have engaged a consultant in Canberra (Jenny Van de Meeberg) to work with us to develop and implement additional strategies for market access. This is something that Avocados Australia is funding directly with a focus on:

  1. strategically lobbying to ensuring avocados is the next product for market access negotiation to China after blueberries, and
  2. strategically lobbying to ensure the market access negotiation for India is completed as fast as possible.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Export charges challenged

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

Avocados Australia has been working with a number of other national peak industry bodies to lobby the Australian Government against a proposal to increase horticulture export cost recovery activities by 67%.

We argue that while horticulture currently makes up just 6% of Australia’s total agricultural exports, it was the fastest-growing sector and should continue to be supported by the Australian Government, by not moving to a full-cost recovery model.

In a joint letter to Federal Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie, Avocados Australia, Australian Mangoes, the Australian Horticultural Exporters’ and Importers’ Association, Cherry Growers Australia, AUSVEG, APAL, Summerfruit Australia and the Australian Table Grape Association, argued horticulture should be supported as it developed new markets and expanded.

We also noted that horticulture is already at a disadvantage. According to the 2017 Agricultural Monitoring and Evaluation report by the OECD, Australian farmers receive the second-lowest level of support in the developed world. This lack of support makes it much harder to compete on a level playing field. Increased charges by the government will continue to disadvantage Australian horticulture, compared to our competitors.

The group’s recommendation to government was:

  1. Freeze any increases in cost-recovery fees (and waive any historical overspends) until a large and sustainable export industry is established
  2. Provide additional resources to assist the Department of Agriculture further develop market access for the horticulture sector, and
  3. With regard to any future changes to the cost-recovery model, appoint an independent advisor to codesign (with industry) the process, with a clear priority on service delivery and efficiency.

Other horticultural groups are also upset at the potential increases, with Citrus Australia noting it would represent a 277% increase in tonnage charges for their industry. Read more in Asiafruit.

The Department of Agriculture (now the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment) has also since committed to commissioning an independent review of their export cost recovery arrangements, conducted by Ernst and Young, which will be conducted in parallel to the public consultation of the Draft 2019/20 Cost Recovery Implementation Statement.

We await the outcome of the Department’s independent review of the cost of export certification. You can find a full copy of our submission letter in the Agripolitical section of your Member Area.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Improvements at Hort Innovation

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

The industry’s relationship with Hort Innovation has been steadily improving in recent times, with the most recent development a Statement of Commitment (PDF link) between our two organisations.

This statement sets up the distinct roles of Hort Innovation and Avocados Australia, as the industry representative body.

We have seen some positive changes with the new CEO of Hort Innovation, Matt Brand, and other changes to the R&D corporation’s senior management.

We are certainly seeing much greater engagement with peak industry bodies. This has included the recent Hort Innovation organisational strategic plan development, and the new Statement of Commitment.

However, the rubber hits the road with the implementation of the Statement and we look forward to the increased cooperation, collaboration and communication.

I recently attended a meeting in Brisbane convened specifically for PIBs (peak industry bodies). There was also one in Sydney and one in Melbourne. This is a very positive step and demonstrates managements’ commitment to working more closely with PIBs.

There are a lot of changes at Hort Innovation with a new strategic plan, many staff changes and changes in roles. A new business unit has been established to focus on adoption and extension.

While this is a very positive move, we are yet to see how this unit will operate on the ground.  While things can always be better, in avocados, we think we are doing a lot right in this area, so we don’t want to be forced in a direction that we don’t think will make things better. We will wait and see.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

R&D Forum and industry advisory panels

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

R&D Forum

On 23 October, I and some members of your Board attended the Hort Innovation convened R&D Forum, in Brisbane.

The focus of this event was around new technology and its potential application for the avocado sector. Participation at the event included various industry representatives, Hort Innovation and technology providers such as Hitachi, Universal Field Robotics, Tie Up Ventures, BOSCH, KPMG, BDO, UNE and AHR as well as technical reps from Coles and Woolworths.

The event was a bit of an experiment and many of us who attended felt that we could have achieved more than we did with the capability in the room. Nevertheless, it did spark a number of ideas that were considered by the R&D SIAP (strategic industry advisory panel) the following day.

SIAP participation

I participated in two Hort Innovation SIAP meetings in October, on behalf of Avocados Australia, one for R&D and one for Marketing. At the R&D SIAP meeting, a major focus was on a gap analysis of the current program against the Strategic Investment Plan.

While there are no yawning gaps some areas were identified for further investment and a number of new investments are about to commence. Communicating nutrition and health benefits of avocados is something that will be ramped up. Years ago, there was R&D extended to educate health professionals (as influencers) of all the great benefits of avocados. This work needs to be reinitiated.

There was also a recommendation for more work around fruit set and retention, to follow on from the work that is currently being undertaken by Dr Harley Smith. Understanding carbohydrate movement in the tree and being able to monitor this to predict or better understand yield is an area to be progressed.

There is also interest in evaluating new rootstocks that are being developed overseas.

The outcomes from the R&D Forum were discussed and it was agreed that an independent evaluation of commercially available digital technology should be undertaken.

What’s the SIAP?

SIAPs consist of industry supply-chain stakeholders, most of whom are levy-paying growers. Panels also include industry representative body representation and, where applicable, a lead agency representative from within the National Horticulture Research Network.

Hort Innovation’s industry-specific SIAPs are in place to discuss investment ideas, in order to provide advice to Hort Innovation on potential levy investments. The advice they give is guided by each industry’s Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). You can find the avocado SIP by clicking here, and read more about the role of the SIAPs on the Hort Innovation website.

This article was produced for the December 2019 Avo Insider.

Avo purchasing trends good news for industry

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

This article was produced for the July 2019 Avo Insider.

It’s a slow but steady climb, as the latest Nielsen data confirms more households than ever are now buying avocados each year. In the 12 months to March 2019, 73% of households are now buying avocados each year.

As we’ll share with the wider industry in the Winter edition of Talking Avocados, this is a small but important increase.

Comparing 12-month periods, the number of purchasing households has gone up to 73% for the 12 months to March 2019, compared to 68% in the previous 12 months.

Given domestic production continues to increase, it’s important we also see this rise in consumption.

According to the latest Nielsen data, there was a national 29% increase in volume (kilogram) growth in the 12 months to March. In fact, avocados led the field in volume growth, with total fruit in the same period actually sitting at -3.3% (yep, that’s a minus sign there).

We’ve come a long way from avocados being an occasional treat to a shopping staple, to a situation where avocado purchaser demographics mirror those for total fruit.

In the 12 months to March 2019, on average our avocado shoppers spent $39.96 on avocados, and $3.62/buying occasion (and they had 11 buying occasions per year).

There is clearly room to move here. Australians are also super consumers of avocado at 3.5kg/per/year but there is growth potential for our industry domestically. While we are actively pursuing export markets as our domestic production continues to grow, the domestic market will always be the solid foundation of our industry.

The industry’s marketing efforts are moving to ensure purchasing trends stay positive for our industry. Now avocado is more of a staple item, we’re out to convert our infrequent buyers.

Among the focus of the latest Australian Avocados marketing campaign, are activities that seek to shift infrequent purchasers to people who see an avocado as an integral part of a happy, healthy lifestyle. We want people buying avocados more than 11 times a year on average. There’s 52 weeks in the year, after all.

 

Hort Award changes have arrived

The Avo Insider and its contents are a member-only service of Avocados Australia. You will not see these articles in the media or our other publications.

 

The Fair Work Commission this month published its decision in respect of the issue of overtime payments for casuals under the Horticulture Award. The Commission has determined to adopt the ‘conciliated proposal’, effective from the first pay period on or after 15 April 2019.

According to the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) this was not a surprising result but the implementation timing was a “blind-side”.

The NFF and other industry bodies worked with the Australian Workers Union (AWU) and National Union of Workers to develop a framework for the decision, which would minimise the impact on farmers.

The NFF ultimately did not object to a proposal to require growers to pay a 15% ‘night loading’ where causal employees work overnight or overtime rates where the employees works more than 12 hours per day or 304 hours over eight (8) weeks.

Although it was a change which many growers would find difficult to accommodate, the NFF took the view that it was less problematic than the possible alternatives outcomes, such as entitlements which mirror those of permanent employees.

On Tuesday, 2 April, the Fair Work Commission notified the sector that it would adopt the compromise. However, the NFF says in an ill-sighted decision about its implementation, the Commission extended only 14 days for fruit, vegetable and other horticulture producers, to understand and enact the changes.

“Determining whether a worker is entitled to overtime requires calculation of a relatively complex formula considering hours worked, when and over what time period. All of this will take time,” NFF CEO Tony Maher said in a statement on 4 April.

Although growers have no choice now but to comply, the rush to do so will inevitably lead to mistakes and misunderstandings, and potential non-compliance.

“The Fair Work’s two-week implementation period shows an astonishing ignorance of the way in which small businesses operate,” Mr Mahar said.

The NFF had argued for either a staggered implementation or a reasonable transition period, given the significant financial impact on growers.

In the decision, the FWC said: With regard to the NFF’s suggestion that the determination provide for a transitional period for implementation of the likelihood of the introduction of over for casual employees, we note that the industry has been on notice of the intention to introduce over payments for employees covered by the Horticulture Award since mid-2017. This was first stated in our principal decision which was issued on 5 July 2017, was reiterated in our August 2018 decision, and was reflected in the draft determination issued on 30 August 2018. For this reason we consider that a transitional period is unnecessary. The determination to give effect to our decision will operate from the first full pay period on or after 15 April 2019.

The FWC accepted evidence offered by the NFF and others convincingly demonstrated that horticultural businesses were price takers and had limited capacity to pass on labour price increases, that harvest functions required extensive hours carried out in short time periods, that the preference of the casual employees was to work as many hours as possible in a short space of time, and that most horticultural employers would try to avoid any onerous over penalty rate requirement.

However, it also accepted evidence from the Australian Workers Union (AWU) that award non-compliance in the horticultural industry was widespread.

Additionally, the FWC said nothing in the submissions would “cause us to re-visit the conclusion reached in the principal decision that casual employees covered by the Horticulture Award should be entitled to overtime penalty rate entitlements”.

A copy of the decision can be found here: https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/decisionssigned/html/2019fwcfb2108.htm.

Growcom’s EA template

Since Growcom’s development of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) template last year, it seems about 100 applications have been made to the Fair Work Commission (FWC).

The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) has, in fact, called on Growcom to stop encouraging employers in the horticulture industry to rush new enterprise agreements into place before new overtime entitlements for casual employees are finalised.

“In July 2017 a full bench of the Fair Work Commission confirmed the Horticulture Award should be varied to include clear overtime entitlements for casual employees. But with the changes to the Horticulture Award yet to be finalised, Growcom is encouraging employers in the industry to push through new enterprise agreements without the entitlements,” the AWU said in a media release on 11 March.

“Since May 2018 around 100 different applications have been made to the FWC seeking approval for enterprise agreements for the horticulture industry. The proposed agreements are in very similar terms and are clearly intended to deny overtime entitlements to casual employees for four years ahead of the Horticulture Award being varied.”

In July 2018, Growcom offered a range of options for growers in the horticultural industry with regard to the upcoming changes to the Award. This including doing nothing, developing an EA using the Growcom template, and developing a customised EA.

AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton has called the provision of an EA template “cynical and unethical”.

“The new overtime entitlements are actually generous for farmers compared to conditions in other industries. They adequately take into account challenges faced by farmers in terms of harvest periods and the weather. They should not be dodged,” Mr Walton said.

Mr Walton also called the push for new laws to allow foreign farm workers to stay longer in Australia “ludicrous” as Australians should be doing the work.

“If farmers and growers actually paid the employees the award there wouldn’t be a labour shortage problem in the sector. If any other industry had these ongoing issues around exploitation, they would rightly be told to get their house in order before government offered to bring in cheap overseas labour. Why would young Australians want to work in an industry that is trying its hardest to drive down conditions? It just doesn’t make sense.”

However, as noted by Growcom, accessing the right labour at the right time is an ongoing issue for many growers.

Growcom CEO David Thomson said the recent addition of skilled agricultural occupations to the Regional Occupations list would allow skilled migrants to access four-year working visas, provided they remained in a specified region and take up agricultural roles.

“While these changes acknowledge the difficulty farmers face in filling regional jobs, they don’t however, address industry’s need for casual, low-skilled workers at peak seasonal times,” Mr Thomson said.

Growcom continues to call for the introduction of an Agricultural Visa to match international workers with low skilled jobs farmers need filled.

“We want to see Australians filling Australian farm jobs. However, lots of farm work is labour intensive, not available year-round and has proven difficult to fill with Australian job seekers,” Mr Thomson said.

Seasonal workers

The Produce Marketing Association Australia-New Zealand (PMA A-NZ), of which Avocados Australia is a member on behalf of industry, recently made a submission on the importance of the Seasonal Worker Program (SWP).

There is currently a review underway of the deed that covers the SWP, providing an opportunity for the fresh produce industry to work with the Department of Jobs and Small Business to improve the SWP to ensure Australian horticultural businesses can manage risk while increasing the scope and popularity of the programme. The first step is to develop clarity around responsibilities under the Deed, which governs how businesses engage with the SWP.

The PMA A-NZ submission to the review includes recommendations for mandated times for departmental approvals, clarifying grounds for suspension, a formal process for managing suspected breaches, pastoral care for SWP participants should be shared between approved employers and primary producers.

According to PMA A-NZ, in 2016-17, approximately 6,166 participants from countries in the Pacific region arrived to work in Australia under the programme. The World Bank estimates Australian employers have delivered approximately A$144 million in net income gains to the Pacific region through the SWP. In Tonga, the wages contribution through the SWP is higher than Australia’s bilateral aid budget to that country.

You can download their submission here: https://www.pma.com/Global-PMA/ANZ/News/2019/Seasonal-Worker-Program-Submission.

 

This article was produced for the April 2019 Avo Insider.