15 January, 2018

Calling all subtropical banana growers

What has changed in your business since 2013?

There are more subtropical banana growers in Australia than there are growers in Far North Queensland.

However, the smaller scale of production on most subtropical banana farms generally makes it harder to invest and experiment with new ways of doing things, both on and off farm.

Joining the latest benchmarking project will provide information that can help you to improve how your business is travelling.

A lot can change in 5 years.

This can include the way you run your farm, how you schedule and manage your crop, what sizes you try to produce and or how you market your product.

For this reason, Pinnacle Agribusiness wants to hear from you and tell you more about the benchmarking project.

The latest benchmarking project for sub-tropical bananas is getting under way.  It will focus on specific issues that impact sub-tropical growers and look at how sub-tropical growers can successfully compete in the Australian banana market

The last round of benchmarking, collated in 2013 and delivered in 2014, showed producers of subtropical Cavendish bananas reported average yields that were 60% lower than those in FNQ.  They also reported 25% lower average returns per carton sold and similar total costs per carton.

You can read the complete 2014 results here.

So, what has changed for sub-tropical banana growers in Australia? 

Has there been a major mind-shift away from trying to compete with the same products, to the same customers, with the larger-scale farms up north?  Are you still getting 25% less per carton?

Have average yields increased? Alternatively, have you found other ways to get better returns for your products? And, are there issues beyond biosecurity and environmental management that are impacting your sub-tropical banana business, that you wish to focus on?

Help yourself, and help us to help you, by participating in the current round of banana benchmarking. 

When you participate in the banana benchmarking project, you will be provided with a personalized and detailed report showing how your business is progressing compared to similar subtropical businesses. You’ll also receive a valuable, overall picture of the subtropical industry. Howard Hall from Pinnacle Agribusiness knows that not everyone can provide information across all areas of their investigation. He’ll work with all participants to ensure you get valuable feedback – regardless of the level of detail that you contribute.

The benchmarking project will focus on some key issues for sub-tropical growers.  The more growers who participate, the better this information is.  It will enable Howard to identify issues and trends, and discover how more successful sub-tropical growers have adapted to the unique, competitive environment they operate in. This Hort Innovation, levy-funded project has been supported by the Banana Strategic Investment Advisory Panel.

Howard would be very happy to discuss the process and benefits of participation with you, and you can be confident that any information you provide will be treated as confidential.

Interested? Keen to learn more?

Contact:

Howard Hall

Pinnacle Agribusiness

Email: hhall@pinnacleagri.com.au 

Mobile: 0412 674 083

Website: www.pinnacleagri.com.au

Contact Details
It is important that ABGC is advised if you know of growers who are not receiving these e-bulletins or the Australian Banana magazine. We may have out of date email or postal addresses for these growers. Please email any updated contact details to: info@abgc.org.au

Also, it is important for membership purposes that growers advise ABGC if they change trading name or their agent (wholesaler) or add one, and also to let their agent know.