FROM THE EXECUTIVE
Grower meetings The ABA’ s annual regional meetings in the Riverina and Sunraysia attracted strong crowds as the board’ s staff outlined a range of issues and activities being addressed by the industry. The board of directors also used the meetings to seek feedback on grower priorities with the ABA’ s latest iteration of the industry’ s strategy plan in the works. The grower meetings were used to highlight project priorities and flesh out any localised issues that require further attention. The top project priorities cited are outlined in the table to the right.
Come and meet celebrity chef Poh Ling Yeow when she launches her new Australian Almonds cookbook, Crunch, at the Almond Centre of Excellence in October.
the knowledge of almonds among buyers and the genuine interest in purchasing more from Australia. Poh, who grew up in Kuala Lumpur, took time to visit her old family home, which was only three blocks away from the High Commission. The ABA’ s new marketing strategy has a key focus on building sales volumes in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are among our closest shipping destinations and early ABA activities in-market suggest there is considerable opportunity to expand our presence.
Come and meet Poh Almond growers across the industry are being invited to meet our celebrity chef Poh Ling Yeow at the Almond Centre of Excellence at Loxton North on Friday, October 24. Poh will be joined by Hort Innovation chair Julie Bird in launching the industry’ s first cookbook, titled Crunch. The ABA marketing team have worked with Poh in producing the book. Poh has had artistic license and devised all the recipes utilising almonds as the champion ingredient in 23 recipes. The book will be available to growers on the day and Poh is happy to provide you with a signed copy. The book launch and meet and greet will be part of an open day at ACE from 3pm to 4.30pm. Keep an eye out for more information around this event. Poh will also be hosting a special ABA Members Dinner on the lawns of ACE that evening. Keep an eye out for more details. Reservations will be required and ABA members will be given first opportunity to book.( If you have not updated your membership after last year’ s conference, please turn to the back of this In A Nutshell edition for details.)
Budwood program As the industry moves into a major replanting phase over the next five to seven years, the board wishes to express the importance of securing trees propagated from virus-tested material. The ABA established a budwood program almost 30 years ago for this very purpose. The ABA’ s varietal mother trees and two site specific budwood orchards have provided buds for more than 80 % of trees planted over the years. These sites are virus tested annually to provided peace of mind to growers and nurseries. The ABA’ s Tree Supply Agreement template has been updated to emphasise the fundamental need for all trees purchased by growers to have been propagated from virus tested budwood and rootstocks. For further information on the budwood program and the ABA’ s virus testing, see page 12.
Award winners Foundational ABA stakeholders Almondco and Select Harvest have featured in export awards over the past month. Almondco was named SA’ s Exporter of the Year, while Select Harvests was named the Regional Exporter of the Year at the Governor of Victoria Export Awards this month. The successes further highlight the amazing track record of our processors as they take Australian product to the world market.
industry. australianalmonds. com. au
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