New leafy veg Standard, national biosecurity strategy, Geoff Moar

Vegalogue is a podcast from Australian vegetable peak industry body AUSVEG. Each month we take a look at issues affecting the Australian vegetable, potato and onion sectors, unpacking levy-funded research and meeting some of the incredible people who make up the vegetable industry.

This month, we discuss:

• How the state-by-state rollout of the new Primary Production and Processing (PPP) Standard for leafy vegetables, berries and melons is progressing.
• A major new project developing a national biosecurity strategy for vegetables, the Vegetable industry biosecurity and business continuity strategy (VG22004).
• Changes to the vegetable industry seen during 60 years as a potato grower and 20 years on the AUSVEG Board with outgoing Director Geoff Moar.

Guests:

• Zarmeen Hassan, National Manager of Biosecurity and Extension, AUSVEG
• Dr Rosalie Daniel, Program Manager - Biosecurity, AUSVEG
• Dr Lucy Tran-Nguyen, General Manager of Partnerships and Innovation, Plant Health Australia
• Geoff Moar, owner, Moar GR & L

Thanks for listening to Vegalogue! You can find out more about AUSVEG and the Australian vegetable industry at ausveg.com.au. Subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tik Tok, or Twitter/X.

Chapters

• 0:24 Rollout of the new leafy vegetable PPP Standard
• 10:25 Vegetable biosecurity and business continuity strategy
• 24:00 Geoff Moar reflects on six decades as a potato grower

Transcript

You gotta remember, I'm only a bloody farmer, mate.

There's some pretty smart farmers out there, so don't deride yourself by any means.

Welcome back to the Vegalogue podcast, a dialogue about the Australian vegetable industry from AUSVEG.

I'm Tom Bicknell.

If you grow leafy vegetables, you will no doubt be familiar with the new food safety standards coming into effect for you next year.

This episode, we catch up with AUSVEG's Zarmeen Hassan for the latest on how that new standard could be applied in each state and territory.

We're also going to be talking through the roadmap of a major new project that aims to create a national biosecurity strategy for the vegetable industry.

Speaking with Plant Health Australia's Lucy Tran-Nguyen and AUSVEG's Rose Daniel, we'll hear how the project will combine the efforts of government and industry organizations from across the country in a way that hasn't been done before.

Finally, we'll be speaking with New South Wales potato grower and outgoing AUSVEG Board Director Geoff Moar about the changes he's seen in the Australian vegetable industry in his 20 years on the Peak Industry Bodies Board.

Let's dive in.

A new food safety standard for leafy veg, melons and berries is coming into effect in less than a year now in February 2025.

The Primary Production and Processing Standard, or PPP for short, was developed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness associated with these crops.

To walk us through how this new standard could look on the ground, I'm joined by Zarmeen Hassan, AUSVEG's National Manager of Biosecurity and Extension.

Zarmeen, thanks for speaking with me.

Thank you for having me, Tom.

So Zarmeen, this new standard was introduced back in August 2022, but it doesn't come into effect until February 2025.

Can you run us through a quick timeline of what's happened from when it was unveiled to where we're at now?

Sure can.

So this conversation started back in 2020 when Hassan's approached melon, berries and leafy veg and told us about their intent to introduce a regulation.

And then they went through an extensive consultation process with the three industries on the proposed regulation.

After a significant amount of consultation and input from the industry and some very challenging conversations, the regulation was gazetted in 2022 August with an implementation timeline of February 2025.

And that 30 months of implementation time was to enable jurisdictions to determine how each jurisdiction will implement the gazetted regulation in their sphere.

So it's been a number of years in the conversation and we still have about 12 months to work out with jurisdiction how they will implement it and also to enable our growers to be compliant with those regulations.

So I guess the big challenge that still remains at the moment is understanding how the standard will be applied in each state and territory, isn't it?

That remains a more significant challenge.

So from the very start, industries have been speaking with the jurisdictions for three key things.

Number one is to ensure that they recognize businesses that currently undertake any form of food safety scheme or a GFSI food safety scheme, most critical so that we're not adding an administrative burden.

Number two, we've asked that they implement those standards across jurisdictions in a uniform manner because as we know, growers grow across jurisdictions and ship across jurisdictions as well across state borders.

So it's important that they don't have to jump through more hoops and loops to be compliant with each jurisdiction's different implementation of that regulation.

And then the third thing is that a lot of the businesses already do the right thing by being certified by ensuring that they have a food safety scheme in place, either because a customer requires them or that's the way they do business.

But there are smaller growers who are unable from a cost perspective to undertake a food safety scheme.

And we want to enable these growers to become part of the regulation and enable them to be compliant because in most cases, the reason that these smaller growers are not undertaking any form of a food safety scheme is because they financially cannot do it.

And secondly, that they just don't have the resources.

They are often mom and pop growers that don't have the resources to undertake the significant administrative burden that comes through a food safety scheme.

So thirdly, we need to enable them to be compliant because if we don't enable them to be compliant, then they will go out of producing any of these three commodities and look at producing something else.

Having a look at the state and territory recognition of existing industry certification schemes, have you seen any movement on that so far?

So this has been the longest standing conversation between jurisdictions and industry.

And to be honest, probably the most significant point of frustration from the industry side, where we've been working with jurisdictions to the past over 18 months now to get them to recognize the current food safety, GFSI schemes that growers undertake and to recognize them as compliant.

The jurisdictions have said that they do intend to recognize them, but the process of recognition has been somewhat challenging.

Probably rightly so, jurisdictions are answerable to their ministers, so we understand that they need to do their due diligence.

But what industries asked them to or requested them to do is to look at how the GFSI schemes map to the regulation.

And if they do map, then to recognize it as 100% compliant and to recognize the growers as 100% compliant and just doing a very simple management statement, rather than them asking the grower to do a whole new process of auditing.

It's been a conversation that's been iterative and a bit of a negotiation process as well, and WA has recently said that they will recognize the food safety schemes.

The other jurisdictions are still during a phase of intending to recognize and determining how they're going to recognize that.

Some jurisdictions want to look at auditing again, which other than the fact that it adds administrative burden, it just slows down the process as well because jurisdictions and state governments just don't have that kind of resourcing to get into auditing all over again.

And secondly, growers are already auditing for the food safety schemes that they undertake.

They don't need to do the same thing all over again because with Fresh Care, we have mapped the regulation to the food safety scheme, the GFSR food safety scheme, and it maps 100%.

So rather than doubling the administrative burden, we've just said simply recognize, have a basic management statement.

If you want, we can work with growers to find a way of sharing the certification, and that will simplify it from the jurisdiction's perspective and simplify it from the growers perspective as well.

I think the intent is there and we are working through that with the jurisdictions.

If governments don't go down that path, what are the implications for growers and down the line for consumers?

So, from a consumer's perspective, I think what is going to happen is that, given the fact that it is adding an additional cost burden to growers, it will further put pressure on the pricing of fresh produce, so it will further increase the cost of living crisis.

And the spin-off effect there also is that as the profit margins of growers keep getting squeezed, you would have fewer growers producing produce for the Australian consumer.

All of these are adding to an already stretched industry and a already stretched Australian consumer as well.

Looking ahead, what are you hoping to see with the implementation of the standard over the next year before the standard comes into effect?

I'm looking at, from an industry perspective, three key things, Tom.

One is that jurisdictions recognize growers that are already undertaking a fresh food safety scheme as compliant.

Number two, that we bring growers that are not undertaking a fresh food safety scheme, generally smaller growers, we enable them to become compliant to the scheme.

So there's a significant amount of extension and knowledge and education work that will need to be done.

And thirdly and critically, that jurisdictions implement the standards uniformly across all states, so that growers that are producing across states and growers that are shipping across state boundaries and state borders don't have to jump through more administrative loops.

Zarmeen, thanks for unpacking that for us.

Thanks, Tom.

You're listening to the Vegalogue Podcast, brought to you by AUSVEG.

The past decade has seen a succession of plant pest incursions into Australia.

The highlight reel includes the 2014 detection of Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus, then Tomato Potato Cylid in 2017, Serpentine Leaf Miner and Fall Army Worm in 2020, Varroa mite and Guava Root Not Nematode in 2022, and of course, Red Imported Fire Ant continues to cause problems.

Each pest incursion requires a new response plan, new coordination between organizations, and a great deal of uncertainty for growers about what impact a pest response plan will have on their business.

Looking to improve that situation is a new levy funded project called the Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy.

It's an ambitious project that we'll be hearing more about over the coming years, and joining me to explain the goals of the project is Rose Daniel, AUSVEG's Program Manager for Biosecurity, and Lucy Tran-Nguyen, Plant Health Australia's General Manager of Partnerships and Innovation.

Rose, coming to you, what's the driver behind this program?

Thanks, Tom.

The Australian vegetable industry is valued at around $5.5 billion, and like other horticultural and agricultural industries, it's exposed to pests and diseases and weeds, and these include those that are already present in Australia and those that have the potential to arrive.

And these pests and diseases, they can impact on productivity and profitability of farming businesses, and in particular, when a new pest arrives, they can also affect the ability to move produce and access markets.

So this program is about making sure that we've got the tools, the skills and the relationships in place, so that the vegetable industry is prepared and can respond quickly in the event that an exotic pest does arrive, and importantly, make sure that farming businesses can get back to trading as quickly as possible.

So if we look back at recent responses, we can see that an industry that is better prepared can respond more effectively and efficiently when a new pest arrives.

So for example, when Serpentine Leaf Miner was first reported in Australia, the availability of a well-researched host list meant that fewer vegetables were subject to market access restrictions, compared with say when Tomato Potato Sillard was reported in Western Australia in 2017.

In that case, the lack of a host list and understanding potential hosts of TPP meant that there was a lot more confusion around the risk of spread of TPP and the movement of produce from Western Australia was quite severely impacted.

Lucy, have Australian growers been dealing with more frequent exotic pest incursions in recent years?

What's behind that?

Oh, thanks, Tom.

So Australia generally has around 40 exotic plant pest incursions yearly, and that's not...

They don't always result in a response or an incursion and an uptake of the reaction.

But the main reason is because of how easy it is to get materials, global travel.

Global travel is actually the number one pathways, we believe, but there's also risk pathways through the weather, so monsoon weather, which can blow in insects, for example.

So those are the things that we've identified as why we could constantly be getting exotic incursions from overseas, and they pose, as Rose mentioned, a constant threat to the Australian vegetable industry, as well as others.

There have been many plans to monitor and manage pest incursions in the past.

How is this project planning to approach that same problem, and what's different about that?

So I guess we need to realise that pest and disease surveillance is being conducted at Australia's borders by governments all the time, and growers are also monitoring and managing the pests and diseases on their farms.

So the monitoring and management component isn't really that new, but there are a number of things that I think are quite unique about this program.

Firstly, we're bringing together a number of different parts of what is a complex and sometimes fragmented biosecurity system.

The program is being led nationally by AUSVEG, and it builds a partnership between the vegetable industry and a number of biosecurity regulatory and R&D expertise from Plant Health Australia, state governments, private industry and university.

So by working together, we're more likely to achieve a better outcome as we build those relationships and trust between the different components of the biosecurity system.

So if we think of the biosecurity system as stretching from the Australian border through to the farm, there are lots of different components in between.

And we're approaching this program from both the farm end and from the regulatory or greater Australian kind of border side of the biosecurity system.

So, for example, we'll be working with growers and agronomists at the farm end to implement practices and technologies that can be used to demonstrate that there are measures in place that reduce the risk of pest entry, establishment or spread on those farms, and to enable businesses to move produce off the farm should a pest arrive.

So, sort of tracing technologies and just being able to demonstrate that best practices are in place.

And at the other end of the system, we're working with the researchers and regulators to develop tools for early detection, for identification of pests so that we can identify the pests more quickly and then control measures for those pests should they arrive from outside of Australia.

So it's kind of a multi-pronged approach across the system.

And the program also includes a responsive component.

So it's adaptable and that component will enable work to be delivered in case there are any unforeseen biosecurity incursions or other events that require additional import of resources.

So it's not just an isolated program.

AUSVEG also has a vegetable and potato farm biosecurity program which we will work with in collaboration to disseminate some of the information from this project as well.

Lucy, what would you add about the innovative or new ground that this project is breaking in terms of biosecurity response?

So, and this is a first off, I believe, and it's one of those that the vegetable industry has been very proactive and the program includes a contingency fund that accounts for any unforeseen future events that potentially could happen within the next five years within this project.

So, it's adaptable, we could respond, we have the project team members in place, we could stand up and respond accordingly.

So, I think this is one of those opportunities that can allow anticipated threats and provides the, I guess, the importance behind the adaptable approach to preparing for exotic plant pests, which this project provides.

One of the big aspects of this project is obviously working with organisations across the map and across the chain when it comes to biosecurity response.

Rose, who are you partnering with on this project and how do all of those different groups work together?

Yeah, so this project is based on three themes.

So the first being surveillance and diagnostics, the second being data and informed decision making, and the third is business continuity and trade.

So each of those three themes focuses on key activities that feed in and out of other themes.

So there's a lot of planning and talking and collaborating to make sure we all know what everybody's doing.

So a summary or an example of that might be that one of the first things that's taking place at the moment is the revision of the high priority pest list for the vegetable industry, which is being done by Plant Health Australia.

So these high priority pests are those that are likely to have the greatest impact on production should they arrive here.

And these are the ones that we want to focus on when we're developing the surveillance and diagnostic protocols, because obviously we can't do this for every single pest that might ever impact any vegetable.

So we need to prioritize which pest we'll focus on.

And so these pest lists will then be used by other partners such as the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, who are working in the diagnostics theme, along with other state agencies to develop the diagnostic protocols for those pest lists.

That high priority pest list will also be used by DECA, so the Victorian Department and Melbourne University to develop risk maps and surveillance protocols.

So it's a matter of making sure that we're all on the same page, working together and sharing information across the program.

Lucy, alongside AUSVEG, Plant Health Australia is the other organisation looking across the whole of the project.

What does PHA's role look like?

So PHA, our project team within this program itself will be leading the business, continuing trade aspects of the theme.

So that's includes biosecurity planning, the contingency, continuity plans, the emergency response capability development for the industry, vegetable industry.

So while we each have our project leads in each of the themes, it's a collaborative approach from that aspect.

So on top of all that, I just wanted to highlight too that, as Rose mentioned, there's aspects within surveillance and diagnostics and data capturing.

So other teams or other pieces of work that PHA runs from other projects is around capability, but also national protocols, and that's for diagnostics and surveillance.

So the outputs from this project, we fed through our other teams within PHA and then fed through the national system.

So from that aspect, it complements the current, this new project.

Another aspect of that for PHA is that we have our digital systems.

So our space check, for example, is an aggregation of surveillance data, which I'm hoping that within this project, we'll be able to develop more and have more data, surveillance data that can be incorporated into our space check from this new exciting project.

So the project's only just got off the ground.

What's the focus for the first year of the project?

Yep, so this year where PHA is revising the vegetable industry plan, so part of that is identifying the new high priority pest list because the old one is now outdated.

Some of those pests are here.

We're also beginning to develop the diagnostics and surveillance protocols and starting to look at ways in which crop monitoring and pest surveillance data might be collected and shared.

So DPERD in WA, their role is in the data and informed decision making theme of this program and that they will be looking at how data might be collected across the board.

So from that grower end to the border end of the program and collated and shared across the biosecurity system to where it's needed so that we can support business continuity for growers in the long run.

We also have an on-farm component starting with Onside who are also partners in this program.

So that will be starting to roll out farm biosecurity plans and technologies for making those farm biosecurity plans electronic rather than paper-based and traceability systems for farms so that if a pest or disease, a new pest or pathogen were to come on to a farm that we can demonstrate where produce or inputs are moving on and off that farm to provide evidence for the continuation of business and trade in the event of an incursion.

Another aspect of our work within this first year will be delivering training on the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed to the AUSVEG Board, and that will allow enhancement of the vegetable industry's emergency response preparedness and implement change at the organisational level.

Rose, how will growers be able to take part in the project?

So growers are a really big and important part of this project.

Over the next 18 months, we'll be working with on-site the AUSVEG Vegetable and Potato Farm Biosecurity Project and the VegNet RDOs initially in Victoria and Queensland to trial some track and trace technologies that can be used to demonstrate that measures are in place on farms that reduce the risk of pest entry, the establishment of spread and enable tracking and tracing of produce and other farm inputs and outputs to enable businesses to move produce should a pest arrive in their region.

So it's addressing that business continuity theme in the program.

So if you are interested, keep an eye out for more about this through the AUSVEG comms or get in touch with us at AUSVEG if you'd like to know more about it.

Rose and Lucy, we look forward to hearing more about the project as it progresses.

Thanks, Tom.

This project is funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable levy and contributions from the Australian Government under project code VG22004.

The Australian vegetable industry landscape was markedly different three decades ago.

The vegetable levy was still several years from its introduction in 1996, and Horton Innovation's precursor HAL wouldn't be established until 2001.

But the industry's representative bodies still had the same mandate, to support growers and advocate for their interests.

Geoff Moar has seen those changes happen, and he's been a big part of many of them.

Geoff has been growing potatoes in the Riverina in New South Wales for nearly 60 years, and for more than half of that time has served on the boards and committees of a variety of industry bodies and associations.

Geoff has recently retired from the AUSVEG Board.

He's the organisation's longest-serving director, having joined the board 20 years ago when AUSVEG was first established.

Deborah Hill had a chat with Geoff about the evolution he's seen in the industry over his time.

So, Geoff, I thought we might start with just a little bit of background about yourself.

You've been a potato grower for easily 40 years with sort of family farm.

My father had a property, and I started growing potatoes in 1967 in a very small way, only six acres with my brother.

We put six acres in, and we've grown two crops a year ever since.

And yeah, we just, well, we kept expanding.

We've built quite a bit of land ownership here, putting together over all those years.

We've had to shift from the first location where we started to get broader acres of suitable country.

And following the water supply as well, which is integral to growing crops.

You're in the Riverina area of New South Wales.

What's that like for potatoes?

We're in southern Riverina and here at Oakland, which is a really terrific country.

The soil type, yeah, there's thousands of acres of suitable country for horticulture.

Well, what we did, we started with fresh market.

We did a lot of years of fresh market.

And then over the last 20 years, we've diversed into the processing sector where we're growing for French fry production and crisping and, yeah, a small amount of export and not on our own.

We supply a company that does do that.

But the processing sector is a bit more stable and you know a little bit in advance that you secure the market for the product at a certain price.

My understanding is that you joined the Board of AUSVEG in and around 2004, is that about right?

Being a potato grower, I got involved with what we call Potato Growers of Australia and that was the body.

Back before AUSVEG, we had one group that represented the potato industry and we had the Australian Vegetable Growers Federation.

I was the chairman of Potato Growers of Australia for the last four years of its existence.

That was 34 years ago that I got involved, I think, with Potato Growers of Australia.

Those early days, we had part-time executive officers.

We didn't have the finance.

At the very beginning, we didn't even have the R&D scheme in place to do research and development.

And what happened?

We could see the economy of scale by joining like-minded bodies, potatoes and vegetables together to form, well, in the very first years, we called it the Australian Vegetable and Potato Growers Federation, which was not called AUSVEG.

Yeah, at a meeting in Sydney, one chap come up with the idea of calling it AUSVEG, trying to get an united approach.

And that's where that started.

But yeah, I've been, yeah, I was well and truly involved with the potato side before AUSVEG was formed, and then have been a director on the board from those early days.

Yes.

What made you want to be part of the Potato Growers Association and also then later AUSVEG as a director in that sense?

We saw the need, you know, with biosecurity import, just trying to stay in touch with like-minded people around the country to do better for our industry.

A lot of people, you know, we stay at home and, you know, complain.

Yeah, look, at least we got off and we tried to get united and what we did were very successful.

It's taken a long time to get AUSVEG to where it is today, but it was very, very difficult when we started with part-time executive offices and input.

Yeah, it was not easy.

And, you know, I was there in the days when we actually put the R&D levy into place.

You know, I remember the meeting in Warrigal where that was voted on and how it's expanded from where it is today.

And the rewards that have been from creating R&D levies, the potato one was put in place before the vegetable levy and was used as an example of how to do it by government and the officials.

Which brings us to the next point with your involvement with AUSVEG.

I believe you were then elected to chair in about 2013, is that right?

Yeah, I did four and a half years as the chair of AUSVEG.

Yeah, I mean, we've had really good people that have come in from all the different states.

Well, what we've been able to do now is, you know, if we have some big biosecurity problem, I can remember going to Canberra and sitting in front of a Senate hearing committee with the threat of imports from overseas that were most likely going to inflict, you know, biosecurity concerns to our growers.

And yeah, being able to get involved representing our industry and meeting with the different politicians that trying to persuade them what was needed by our industry.

Yeah, it's been a long trip, but it's been really worthwhile.

You have now finished up with the board and I assume semi-retired, even though you're still pulling in harvests as we speak.

Why have you decided to hang up the hat?

Well, Deborah, yeah, I love being on the board, but yeah, well, you've got to stop somewhere.

You've got to make sure that other interested people can get involved.

That is really, really important.

I might have been there too long.

You know, I think I've spent 33, 34 years from when I started with the potato industry representation to when, well, at least I didn't get kicked out.

I went on my own free will as well.

I think everything is running very, very calmly at AUSVEG.

And I thought, yeah, maybe a good time to just sit on the outside and watch, you know, what's happening.

But in terms of the potato industry, once a potato farmer, always a potato farmer, how do you, how, what would you like to see for the industry moving forward?

The potato industry has been absolutely terrific to us.

To be able to start with what we did and to build to what I have now, what, what our family has been able to put together now.

The potato industry, it's hard work.

It's, it's risky.

The thing is, though, I know at the moment, there's a lot of input to looking into the supermarkets.

The unfair part is, you know, as growers, we're getting paid cents a kilo.

And you go in to the supermarket chain, and you see everything is dollars a kilo.

And I think that it's great that we've now got a spotlight on that.

Geoff, just to wrap up then, is there any other thoughts about being on the board and AUSVEG generally that you would like to comment on?

You know, the people that I have had to work with, there have been fantastic people that have been there to represent, the like-minded people from all of the other states.

They're all there giving up their time on behalf of the industry, trying to achieve, you know, you've just got to keep going and stay united for the best of the industry.

Well, when we had no staff, we only had part-time people working and you walk in now and you see the projects that are being managed by the organisation, it's a heck of an achievement.

It's all very, very professional to where we've come from.

So I see that the future is going to be much, much simpler than what it was when we started.

Well, Geoff, thank you for your time today.

I know it's been a bit of a challenge to get to this point with your harvest at the moment.

So thank you so much.

Thank you very much, Deborah.

Thank you.

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Vegalogue is produced by AUSVEG, the peak industry body for Australian vegetable growers.

You can find more news and information from AUSVEG at ausveg.com.au on our social media channels or in Australian Grower magazine.

Thanks for joining us and remember, knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.