CAERNARVON Cherry Company’s Fiona Hall will embark on the trip of a lifetime on Tuesday when she flies overseas as part of an 18-week scholarship to look at ways to make primary producers more efficient and return a greater profit.
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Mrs Hall, who is the managing director of the cherry growing, packing and marketing operation, will visit Europe, including the United Kingdom, as well as the USA, Asia and New Zealand after winning one of 22 Nuffield Scholarships last year.
“This is a huge opportunity,” Mrs Hall said.
“Essentially, I’ll get to study ways to close the gap between producer and retailer profits and I plan to use the information gathered to further strengthen the Australian market.
“Our industry adds three times the value of our crop in packing, processing and sorting.
“I want to look at how we can achieve more value at the farm gate for producers.
“To understand this I need to study how large pack houses rationalise, streamline, become more transparent, value-add, improve packing, market, use real-time reporting and, of course, innovate.”
Mrs Hall said in the 2013/14 season the Caernarvon Cherry Company handled 1000 tonnes of fruit, equating to 10 per cent of the Australian crop.
She said 60 per cent of her crop is exported to Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, Dubai and Russia.
Mrs Hall and her husband Bernard Hall also co-own Bonny Glen Fruits with Tim Hall, growing apples on four properties around Orange and utilising two cold storage properties where they pack apples for themselves and other growers under their BiteRiot brand.
Mrs Hall said she wants to use the scholarship to look at further developing Australia’s export culture to ensure a sustainable future for growers.
“The industry is under a lot of cost pressure, particularly labour, and to be able to grow we need to take advantage of the opportunities of our clean, green and safe reputation and our location in Asia,” she said.
Mrs Hall said Australia’s reputation as a safe producer will pay dividends for the agricultural industry which will benefit from better labelling showing a products’ country of origin.
Nuffield Australia, with assistance from Horticulture Australia Limited and the Federal Government and the Apple and Pear Australia, provides opportunities for people in the agricultural industry to travel overseas and learn more about marketing, production and distribution.
