Citrus Market Outlook Forum 2023 annual awards a highlight | PHOTOS

The Citrus Australia annual awards were held as part the industry dinner during the Market Outlook Forum 2023, which took place from March 7 to 9 and included orchard and packing shed visits, plus plenty of information delivery and networking sessions.

In a show of how connected the international citrus industry is, guests came from as far as South Africa, Spain and Singapore.

Presentations covered a vast array of topics including research and development priorities, the fertiliser supply chain, developments in the juice industry, supermarket perspectives, consumer data, global sustainability measures, carbon farming, export markets, traceability and much more.

RELATED READING

The industry stakeholders of tomorrow were not forgotten either with students and teachers from Mildura Senior College attending a farm tour, looking at careers and pathways into the agricultural industry.

The Fresh Produce Group delivered a deep dive into its operations, explaining how it refines traceability operations and innovatively explores trellising in the orchard.

Another farm tour was held at Nutrano with Tania Chapman and Cam Peters explaining orchard operations from pruning to netting.

ONE of the highlights to the Market Outlook Forum was the presentation of the Citrus Australia annual awards which recognise contributions that have strengthened the Australian citrus industry.

The five recipients of the various awards were warmly received. Here is a recap of the winners.

GAYNDAH citrus grower Matt Benham farms with his wife Rachael and parents Murray and Averial and has actively sought opportunities to travel interstate and overseas to learn new growing techniques, adopt new technology and view his fruit in the market.

He is then always willing to share his insights with industry. He shares these through group grower visits, hosting workshops and field days.

Mr Benham is constantly investigating new technology and machines that meet his mantra of working smarter, not harder, particularly in the field of hedging and thinning.

Mr Benham is a past member of the Citrus Australia Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee, and has been part of the Southern Queensland Regional Advisory Committee for four years, recently being appointed chair.

EASTCOAST Beverage's social media has established great relationships with its customers.

In 2019 Eastcoast began its marketing campaign Return, Regrow, Re-juice which re-positioned Eastcoast as a company that does more than just sell juice.

The family business is committed to the environment with a goal of becoming 100 per cent recyclable. As part of this sustainability, Eastcoast supports those in need with the return of peel to Australian farmers in drought.

Associating target consumer values with its label, Eastcoast continues with its theme of social responsibility seen in their Flood Recovery Labels, where 10 cents from each bottle went towards the Vinnies Flood Appeal in 2022, and in 2021, supported Coast Shelter with a Christmas wrapping fundraiser.

CLAIRE Wraight has worked at Legacy Packing as compliance and personnel manager for five years and in the past two years has not only changed the business but is contributing change to the wider industry.

In 2019 Ms Wraight was awarded a Hort Innovation scholarship to participate in the national Women in Leadership program.

Since that time, she has been a motivating leader, championing young people to begin a career in horticulture.

In the past 12 months alone, Ms Wraight has hosted six students from the University of Melbourne as part of a project looking at putting master students into local agricultural businesses.

From inductions, weekly meetings, reading cover letters and establishing mentor projects, Ms Wraight is known for being accommodating to different learning styles and needs to ensure young people are welcomed into the workplace.

MIKE Arnold showed vision at an early age when he invested money in a private irrigation scheme on the family farm in the 1950s, and later replaced wine grapes with blood oranges which proved to be wildly successful throughout Australia.

Mr Arnold played a pivotal role as the chairman of Auscitrus since the amalgamation of the Australian Citrus Propagation Association and Australian Citrus Improvement Association in 2001, through to his retirement in 2021.

Prior to 2001 he was chair of the Australian Citrus Improvement Association for several years. He was also a founding member of the South Australian Citrus Improvement Society, and chaired that through to his retirement in 2021.

Mr Arnold has also been a member of the Waikierie Co-Op Board for two decades, a former chairman and life member of the Ag Bureau of Waikerie and has granted 60 years of service to the South Australian Country Fire Service, at state and local level.

JOHN Morris's knowledge of merchandising and branding has been described as second to none in the industry.

Mr Morris got his start in citrus while still at school, helping with harvest and domestic and export packing to Europe in the late 1950s and 1960s.

After seeing an opportunity for providing 100 per cent orange juice in early 70s, Mr Morris and his father David and brother Paul got a group of families together in Leeton and built a new juice plant in Leeton

They established Leeton Citrus Juices in 1972 and launched the Quelch brand which became a household name on the eastern seaboard.

Mr Morris launched a few packhouse operations and was involved in the Riversun program. With his son Dean, he went on to develop Moricom orchards in 2005 focusing on easy peel seedless Afourers and launched the Delite brand.

Sign up here to Good Fruit and Vegetables weekly newsletter for all the latest horticulture news each Thursday...