Learnings from the Protecting Cropping Australia conference | Brisbane

I was very fortunate to go to the PCA conference in Brisbane in July. This is the biggest event for the greenhouse industry in Australasia and was packed full of presentations on so many different topics. The main issues in New Zealand are also the main concerns in Australia – biosecurity and IPMs, energy and cost of production and labour. Some of the differences I noticed were how future focused Australia seems to be so they can be less reactive and more proactive in terms of research, climate change and potential export markets. The other huge difference was how involved both federal and state governments seem to be in driving research and supporting the industry.

Some interesting stories that I heard about:

An Australian company called Optimal https://optimalgroup.com.au/ who have developed an energy system has the potential to be fully circular and negative carbon producing.

Industrial Allocation

 Are you registered yet on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)? If you aren’t you have until the end of the year to complete this task so that you can be awarded industrial allocation for your tomato production this year. There was a series of articles developed by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) earlier this year which are now up on our website which takes you through this process.

Check these out here: https://www.tomatoesnz.co.nz/hot-topics/industrial-allocation-and-how-to-register/

If you registered last year, have you completed the paperwork regarding your volume of tomatoes sold? You still have time to do this – it isn’t too late! Depending on the documentation that you keep, providing this proof could be as easy as sending in a copy of a spreadsheet or it could be a lot of work converting manual notes to an online format. If you use a wholesaler, it’s worth asking them if they can provide you with a record of volume sold to them. The EPA only checks the information that you provide the first year that you apply. After that, they could audit you so you still need to keep good records of the crop you produce. Industrial allocation is only for certain greenhouse grown crops and fresh tomatoes is luckily one of these. It doesn’t matter if you don’t heat or if you use recycled oil, all commercial fresh tomato growers can claim their entitlement. If you have any issues when completing this process, please contact me and I can help you.

 Energy audit survey

TNZ is in talks with the Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (EECA) about changes that should be made to the current GIDI fund. Currently only large projects can apply for co-funding opportunities to switch fuels. TNZ would like this fund to be open to more growers, with a wider range of projects that could be applied for and with no lower spending limit. To help argue this case, it would be really helpful if growers could complete a quick survey which will provide anonymous information about the needs  of the fresh tomato industry in terms of an energy audit. This can be completed by anyone who has access to data about what the size of your greenhouses and the equipment that you already have. It doesn’t matter if you heat /  don’t heat etc as all infomation is useful!

You can complete the form here https://forms.office.com/r/gn2W2s9Wcq