Facilitating cherry industry communications via the Tree Fruit magazine (CY04007)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The Australian Cherry Industry required an effective and efficient method of communicating to all national cherry growers/levy payers on a regular basis. Industry needed to communicate information about research, marketing, best practice, extension, environmental issues and industry activities. Back in 2004 the Australian Cherry Industry had no ‘official’ recognized publication for growers to refer to, thus communication with levy payers was limited.

An approach was made to Nick Morenos of Tree Fruit Communications to have cherry information and articles included in the national magazine ‘Tree Fruit’.

This project aimed to “use the ‘Tree Fruit’ magazine to report on the activities of the Cherry Growers of Australia Inc and communicate to all Cherry Levy Payers on a regular basis”.

The following were the specific objectives of this Project:

1. Establish a communication strategy for the Australian Cherry Industry to improve the communication within the Industry.
2. Develop a simple and effective method of reporting on Australian Cherry activities and R&D projects and programmes to the growers.
3. Obtain information from the Industry, Hort Innovation (which was then Horticulture Australia Limited) and researchers in the form of articles and papers for inclusion in a national communications publication.
4. Print a minimum of one page in each of the 10 issues produced each year of the publication – ‘Tree Fruit”.
5. Establish a database of Australian Cherry Growers and/or levy payers and circulate the publication to each of those growers/levy payers 10 times per year.
6. Utilize the publication to promote and then report on industry activities including the Annual Conference and Levy payers meeting(s).

‘Tree Fruit’ magazine had been an important addition to the communication strategy for Cherry Growers of Australia Inc (Project CY04007) and became well received by growers.
CGA had utilized this media as the official industry communication journal since September 2004. At that time the industry sought a mechanism to effectively, efficiently and regularly communicate with grower levy payers. Tree Fruit was selected and continued to be used to report on the activities of CGA.

Through regular reports from the President and Secretary, CGA had been able to keep growers abreast of the many issues being dealt with by the organization. The magazine also reported on industry programs including research and development, promotion, plant health, biosecurity, and general industry projects.

A recent inclusion had been reports from the state affiliates which helped keep growers informed of local activities and issues. Special industry articles were also supplied by local and international experts. A minimum of two pages were used to cover the industry activities across 10 editions each year.

Tree Fruit was sent to all known Australian cherry growers on the industry database representing 650 to 700 growers.

Overall the original objectives were achieved and the publication “Tree Fruit” which commenced in August 2004 had continued to inform ALL Australian Cherry Growers and/or Levy Payers about the relevant activities of the Australian Cherry Industry.

A recent private industry review reported that the “Tree Fruit” publication had a recall within that industry sector of 78 per cent.

Cherry Growers of Australia Inc agreed to continue to implement the communication strategy by extending our involvement with “Tree Fruit’ for a further period.