Hundreds of delegates turned out for the opening day of the Australian Banana Industry Congress in Sydney on Thursday. Event Chairman Ben Franklin was nervous due to some tough times across the industry recently, but in the end, he says, he was pleased with the turnout.
"There have been some challenging financial conditions for growers over the past 6-12 months," he said. "Challenges in the commercial environment, oversupply in production and poor market conditions which led to poor returns. But we have over 300 delegates from a wide cross section of the industry including growers, supply chain and transport companies. So I'm very pleased."
The day started with speeches from Peter FitzSimons and Dennis Hoiberg on the Congress's key themes - sustainability, innovation and resilience, and 'self management'.
"We tried to get a mix of motivational speakers to provide a good rhythm," he said. "Then this afternoon we had the more technical information from both local and international scientists. Talking to a few of the delegates they are excited about the science that is coming through."
Among the academics were Professor Randy Ploetz, Dr Frederic Bakry, Andre Drenth, Stewart Lindsay and Tony Pattison, who shared their research on banana diseases. Sessions also discussed banana marketing and consumer-focus innovations with talks from Lisa Cork, Eliza King and Rose Herceg.
"A lot of things the growers are aware of, but they just need to be reminded," Mr Franklin said. "So it's good for them to get an update of where their money (that they pay in levies) is being spent. Then we had someone who looks at produce more broadly just to give us some thought starters on how some global trends might be used."
The conference continues tomorrow with a tour of the retail markets, followed by a chef's demonstration before wrapping up with more seminars on Saturday.
Fresh Plaza will have stories from the presentations, as well as a photo report in coming days.
For more information on ABIC 2017: www.bananacongress.org.au