Category: News & Media

Many Australian banana growers work hard to protect the environment year in, year out—after all, it’s their home as well as their livelihood.  But with 2018 declared the International Year of the Reef, what better chance to recognise the Far North Queensland banana growers striving to preserve the natural icon…

By Monica Haynes, Terrain The Wet Tropics isn’t called the Wet Topics for nothing, but heavy rain didn’t stop more than 100 people ’walking’ local landscapes recently to better understand how water catchment systems work. The Wet Tropics Major Integrated Project (MIP) has organised a number of ‘Walking the Landscape’ workshops,…

The Australian Banana Growers’ Council has rolled out the first of a series of sediment management workshops aimed at helping north Queensland banana growers improve their on-farm sediment practices. The first was held at the South Johnstone Research Station on March 16 and attracted an enthusiastic group of growers. The ABGC…

The Gold Coast sure knows how to host a premier event. This year, the Commonwealth Games. Next year? The Australian Banana Industry Congress! Royal Pines Resort has been selected as the venue to host our next biennial Congress, from May 22 to 24, 2019. The site will effectively…

By Tegan Kukulies  The NextGen banana growers group have kicked off 2018 with a field walk through two field trials which were planted in late 2017 at the South Johnstone DAF research station. Members of the group were able to see first-hand the 600 Goldfinger plants which have been…

A new, regular feature in Australian Bananas magazine, Under the Microscope will profile the industry’s emerging and exotic diseases. Sometimes you just need the facts, fast. WHAT IS BLOOD DISEASE? Banana Blood Disease is caused by a bacterium called Ralstonia syzygii subsp. celebesenis which belongs to a…

The initial purpose of a Harmonised Australian Retailer Produce Scheme (HARPS) was to provide a single food safety certification to replace multiple  requirements for growers supplying more than one supermarket chain. However, this could not be explicitly achieved. What growers are now required to have is a base scheme—like Freshcare—as well…