SUSTAINABILITY was one of the key focus topics to emerge at a gathering of raspberry, blueberry, strawberry and blackberry growers last week.
BerryQuest International 2022 was held at SeaWorld Resort on the Gold Coast from July 25 to 28.
Various speakers touched on the need to embrace sustainability as part of a business plan, with retail chains and consumers increasingly taking notice of the environmental and ethical practices of farming businesses.
Berries Australia chief executive Rachel Mackenzie said being vigilant of environmental and ethical standards was becoming increasingly important in agriculture businesses.
"In almost every presentation I saw there was a theme around sustainability, and it's not fringe or niche," Ms Mackenzie said.
"It's not something we do on top of our day-to-day business; it has to be integrated into our day-to-day business."
She said bigger picture topics had now become necessary to embrace.
"The dial has changed. We are not talking about, is climate change happening, what does it mean, what are the consequences? Climate change is here; we feel it, we see it, it's impacting on how we work," she said.
"We have to work to manage it."
In his live-streamed address from Chile, HortiFruit SA CEO Juan Allende pointed out the sustainability trend that included business transparency across five pillars: people, water, climate change, waste (packaging and other) and biodiversity.
"Sustainability has to be embedded into the organisation," Mr Allende said.
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"Trust and network are probably the most important assets of this business."
Ingrid Roth, Roth Rural and Partnerships gave an update on the Horticulture Sustainability Framework, launched last year, saying the whole-of-industry collaboration on the project was pleasing.
She said it was important not to lose sight of the bigger picture which horticulture is involved in.
"There is a bit of tendency in ag to minimise our impact but we actually produce food which is really important," Ms Roth said.
She said the framework was likely to be shuffled and refined in the light of changes to sustainability policies and corporate action, an area she said had evolved rapidly over the past year.
Sustainable labour a major consideration
WOOLWORTHS representatives Rachel Elliot and Laura McManus spoke about the company's Sustainability Plan 2025, saying it aims to guide the journey towards a "better tomorrow for our team, our planet and the customers and communities we serve".
The plan is categorised into people, planet and product.
Of particular interest to the horticulture sector are the company's progress and goals surrounding farm workers and labour hire programs.
Compliance schemes will make up a substantial part of ensuring produce is sourced from those working ethically.
Since signing up to three mutually recognised schemes in 2018 (Sedex, Fair Farms and Global GAP), Woolworths has continued to pursue other initiatives such as conducting 106 audits and adopting a risk-based approach with a focus on seasonal, labour intensive categories.
Figures presented showed 54 per cent of high risk fruit suppliers have audited their operations or a strategic grower.
Woolworths has also conducted pre-harvest briefing sessions and a labour hire deep dive with four suppliers.
Fair Farms national program manager Sachin Ayachit said the Modern Slavery Act came into force on January 1, 2019, and was highly relevant to growers as supply chain partners.
"It is very important to embrace that change. If we don't change, we go backwards," Mr Ayachit said.
He said there was a growing trend for consumers demanding transparency in their produce through to knowing how the workers are treated, with many willing to pay more for peace of mind.
Mr Ayachit said ethical sourcing of labour was one of the most fundamental risks to a horticulture business and needed focus.
He showed various headlines from media stories exposing worker exploitation.
"Not changing is not an option. Do we want to keep going like this or do something about it?" he said.
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