Coordinated development of the Australian tree nut industry (NT12001)

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Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.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 tree nut industry had experienced a 50 per cent increase in production in the previous five years. This had largely been a result of orchards planted in the late 1990s/early 2000s coming into bear. Projected growth was a further 43 per cent by 2025, with this next expansion being driven by improved productivity and further new plantings. ANIC members recognised that the industry needed to support this expansion and development at an industry-wide level to ensure information was made available to all of industry in a timely, consistent and comprehensive manner to aid better decision making. This was particularly the case for the smaller industries who lacked the resources and coordination to conduct many of these activities themselves in the short-medium term.

As the Australian nut industry continued to grow, additional capacity was required to undertake industry development planning and implementation. The needs of the industry were broad and complex. The allocation of resources to provide industry development services accelerated existing planning and bring new information to the industry collectively.

The Coordinated development of the Australian tree nut industry project provided for a part- time (0.2 FTE) Industry Development Manager (IDM). Through this project the IDM was engaged in an education and communication role so that across nut industry activities were coordinated and information was shared across the industries collectively. Fundamental to this role was the coordination of these activities across all seven tree nut industries of almonds, macadamias, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, chestnuts and hazelnuts.

The IDM had the capacity to provide vital information to empower the individual nut industries and support the investments each of them were making in industry development and importantly to avoid duplication of effort where possible.

The project worked across the key activity areas of:

1. Coordination, collection and collation of industry production statistics
2. Provision of general market access information
3. Communication and dissemination of information on food safety issues
4. Communication and dissemination of information on nut industry biosecurity issues and practices
5. Coordination of multi-industry chemical registrations and minor use permits
6. Review and update the Australian Nut Industry Strategic Plan.

A range of outputs were produced over the life of the project and they were detailed in this report. ANIC believed the intended project outcomes were achieved. These include:

• A more empowered nut industry,
• Greater consistency of information provided to all nut industries to incorporate into their extension and delivery capacity,
• Greater awareness of the individual nut industries as to the issues of commonality between them, and areas they might collaborate on, and
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness of the wide range of private and public funded R&D that many ANIC member already undertake.

This project had involved the Australian tree nut industries of almonds, macadamias, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, chestnuts and hazelnuts collaborating through the Australian Nut Industry Council (ANIC). The Australian Nut Industry Council (ANIC) was the federation representing the seven commercial tree nut industries in Australia.