Horticultural industry fights against labour, fruit fly and weather conditions

Horticultural Coalition of SA chair and SA Produce Markets chief executive officer Angelo Demasi said it had been quite challenging to get fruit and vegetables to the table.

"But I think that the highlight is really been the resilience of our industry to continue to supply our communities," he said.

He said the key challenge for 2022 were the weather patterns.

"We have been working through our programs in terms of biosecurity," he said.

"Not only in the Riverland do we have floods, we also have certain areas that are riddled with fruit fly so we are running weekly programs and operational programs with PIRSA and industry to ensure we eradicate it in SA."

Mr Demasi said prices would rely on supply and demand.

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"It is always difficult to predict prices this far ahead," he said.

"I think the inflationary prices that we saw this year won't go into the new year - we were hoping that prices will come back to some normality in 2023."

He said biosecurity remained a top priority for the year ahead.

"We are working on the biosecurity project which is looking at the federal government fruit fly Resilience Program with the sterile insect technique (SIT) program," he said.

"It is ensuring that we increase capacity for the Qfly SIT program and also looking at establishing a Med fly SIT program in Port Augusta with the government and also our biosecurity precinct ensuring that we also have post harvest treatment for SA when outbreaks do occur."

Mr Demasi said water was another focus for 2023.

"Northern Adelaide Irrigation Scheme is another thing we are working with the government and the industry and it looks like we are going to get there with NAIS and get some water to the north," he said.

"But it is all based on price and infrastructure.

"And the other thing is obviously labour and everyone's struggling with that but trying to get qualified people doing the job and also pickers into the region.

"We are still struggling with that, but that would be another focus in 2023."

But he said the key factors for achieving their goals were considering options outside the box.

"Obviously COVID is a major factor in ensuring that we have people on the ground and that we don't have any further lockdowns or obstacles which caused a lot of the labour shortage," he said.

"We have opened up the international borders, and hopefully we now start seeing the international community come back into Australia.

"Working with state and federal government on labour and ensuring we work on the educational programs that need to be put in place to ensure we have skilled workers in the right jobs.

"And looking at the next level of skilled worker is robotics and ag tech - it is all happening in that area."

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