Industry Updates from Spring Meeting
16 industry representatives joined the Spring meeting in person and 15 industry representatives joined virtually on the 13th of September 2022. SABAC very much appreciates the vital and ongoing support of GPSA for hosting these important meetings.
There were 14 presentations providing updates to the committee on their current activities, with some key points as follows:
- Barley Australia, Wheat Quality Australia and Grains Industry Market Access Forum (GIMAF) have successfully merged with Grains Australia (GA) and GA has also assumed responsibility for the National Working Party on Grain Protection.
- Recently announced that Richard Simonaitis has been appointed the new CEO of Grains Australia and will commence 1st November 2022.
- Barley Australia activities, including Malting Barley Accreditation, continuing business as usual.
- SABAC webpage has been updated with key news and events as well as, upcoming and previous meeting documents uploaded to the SABAC members only section.
- Barley Australia website (including SABAC webpage) remains active now until Grains Australia website rebuild and will continue to be updated.
- Update provided on the WTO Dispute regarding the China Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Duty Measures on Australian Barley, with further updates expected early 2023. New market opportunities for malting barley were discussed.
- OzBarley project overview and tools for research were presented to the group. Data generated from this project will be accessible at https://germinateplatform.github.io/get-germinate/.
- SARDI provided an update on recent disease survey results in South Australia.
- InterGrain provided updates on two new barley varieties, Combat and Zena.
- Australian Grain Technologies (AGT) provided an update on the release of their new barley variety Titan AX.
- SECOBRA/Seednet provided an update on the progress of Laperouse in Stage 2 of the malt accreditation program and discussed new varieties in the pipeline.
- Trust Provenance presented to the group information regarding the ‘Paddock to Bottler’ project and their traceability software.
- GRDC discussed new barley research projects and announced opportunities for further projects (open tenders).
- AEGIC provided market outreach activities to date, and noted they are continuing their online barley webinars and grower seasonal updates in 2022.
- Grower and agronomy updates indicated that 2022 is looking to be mixed year with a cold dry winter followed by the possibility of a wet spring.
- T-Ports discussed their operations at Lucky Bay port and the new development at Wallaroo.
- PIRSA discussed the latest crop and pasture report dashboard available on their website and Dave Lewis announced his impending retirement. The SABAC group thanks Dave for his contributions and support over many years.
Key Industry Dates
Adelaide, 7-8 February 2023
Lucindale, South Australia
17-18 March 2023