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Successful BerryQuest International 2022
Fruit Growers Tasmania | Tuesday, 9 August 2022, 10.00am
BerryQuest International 2022 was held for the first time in four years at the Sea World Resort and Convention Centre on the Gold Coast. The conference ran over three days between the 25-28 July with two days of main and concurrent sessions including multiple international speakers and then finishing with farm tours later in the week; there was something for everyone.
It was truly an international event, with nearly 500 people attending from across Australia and overseas. Fruit Growers Tasmania’s Berry IDO, Mark Salter and Fruit Growers Tasmania’s CEO, Peter Cornish, were both in attendance.
A highlight this year was the inclusion of the BerryQuest Emerging Leaders Bursary program, which gave several emerging leaders from the berry industry the opportunity to attend two workshops and participate in BerryQuest, fully funded by Berries Australia in partnership with Raspberries and Blackberries Australia, Strawberries Australia Inc. and Australian Blueberry Growers’ Association.
The event was packed with keynote presentations from Soren Bjorn, Driscolls of the Americas President, who spoke on, How Berries Became the World’s Favourite Fruit. Followed by Juan Ignacio Allende, Hortifrut S.A CEO, who spoke on the global perspective on berries. Later Professor David Hughes gave a very entertaining talk titled, Berry Popular & Berry Profitable? Which drew attention to what is happening in the UK and European berry sector. Also, Eric Snodgrass from Nutrien Ag Solutions spoke on predictive, analytical software solutions to manage weather risk. It was a fascinating talk as he explained how weather modelling has become advanced enough to predict weather down to a local level.
The conference had sessions on Pest and Disease, Optimising Production, Workforce Challenges & Opportunities, Berry Breeding, Managing Off Farm Impacts and a session on the Future of Berries; this session included several speakers presenting on Artificial Intelligence, robotics and technology advancements.
It was great to see that an abundance of growers took the opportunity to go on the farm tours, including a visit to Queensland Berries, a large grower, with strawberries in the field and rubus in tunnels. Other visits included Bugs for Bugs, where visitors were given a tour of the insectary and viewed many beneficial insects produced there. The final stop was Taste ‘n See, a substantial strawberry grower that grows on tabletops in the open. Overall, the farm visits were an excellent opportunity to meet and connect with other Australian berry growers and observe how they have overcome challenges and modernised their farms.
All in all, BerryQuest International 2022 was a highly successful conference, with a lot of extremely positive feedback from participants. Fruit Growers Tasmania would like to thank Berries Australia for organising such a world-class event for the horticulture sector.
