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| AU: Blueberry growers go green | | | | 2009-9-27 9:18:56 | | | Blueberry and rubus growers from across the country are in Coffs Harbour in northern NSW this week for the inaugural BerryQuest.
Delegates are hearing from local, national and international speakers on the latest in research, products, and issues affecting both industries.
Vice-president of the Australian Rubus Growers' Association, Yarra Valley grower Steve Chapman, says the new horticulture award is a big threat to his industry.
"I think we need to maintain flexibility in our arrangements with workers for working on Sunday and overtime and piece work rates are all key things that we need to keep competitive, and give consumers berries at a reasonable and affordable price," he says.
The conference has heard that Australian blueberry growers are using their clean green image to compete with the rest of the world.
NSW grower Tim Zirkler has returned from travelling the world on a Churchill Fellowship studying farming techniques.
"We've just got to go for the clean green image across the world, it's the only way we can be," he says.
"Other countries are going to catch up in that degree, it's getting that way we're getting standardised assessments especially for supermarkets who are driving it around the world.
"The UK, TESCO, Sainbury's, those sort of large supermarkets have pretty strict requirements as well."
Mr Zirkler says Australia already has an established reputation with the Japanese.
"There's been a lot of work done by Australian industry in Japan," he says.
"We are preferenced to the rest of the world on our product because of the clean, green image that we've got over there."
The Japanese have strict requirements on the blueberries they import.
"The use of chemicals, there's strict strict requirements on use of chemicals, lots of spray diaries and the like," says Mr Zirkler.
"All growers have to have specialised audits to be able to get in there.
"The way that we grow them, the varieties that we grow, they're all geared towards the cleanest image that we can have."
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