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Summary of the Minutes of the Executive Committee held by Teleconference on Tuesday 28 November 2006 at 7.45pm
Present: Mike Amour, Margaret Edwards, Ian Manson, Alastair Bridge, Ed Scott, Anne Opie, Paul Williams, Tony Casey; Graham Keen.
Mike welcomed Graham to the Exec.
Apologies. David Pearson. His apology was accepted.
There were minor amendments to the previous meeting. All matters arising from those minutes were on the agenda and discussed in the course of the meeting.
EO’s report. This had been circulated in advance. Issues noted were:
• the 2007 applications for funding from the Sustainable Farming Fund is now
open and the need to make an application
• his attendance at a seminar on the food service industry in Asia
• the new website being well received and up and running
• the Pinot Noir 2007 event
• work done on sponsorship for the event next year.
In speaking to his report he commented on the “tasting station” that had been set up at the Pinot Noir event as providing a valuable opportunity for promotion, including promotion with international visitors”. Another exec member drew parallels between this event and the Air NZ wine awards that are attended by a large number of people and influential industry groups.
There was a discussion on how best the EO could progress the work on the development of a complaints procedure following the discussion of this issue at the ONZ conference.
Financial. The Treasurer had circulated financial reports to be discussed in his absence.
Bank balances as of 31-10-06 were:
Main account $39,358.17
IOP account $19,109.63
Conference account $22,629.38
Cash on deposit $75,263.23
The Treasurer had raised the question of the declining subscriptions as an issue to be attended to. The EO said that he was sending out notices to non-payers in the coming week and that those that did not respond will no longer be members as of 1-1-07. He had also emailed the regions to ask them to contact non-payers but only the Wairarapa had responded. The Exec voted that the financial reports be accepted. CARRIED.
Technical.
Processing course. Pieralisi has agreed to sponsor a considerable amount of the cost. Participants will be expected to pay $250 + air fares + 3 nights’ accommodation with an optional $80 dinner (costs of other meals will be covered). The course will be run at Simunovich’s south of the Bombay Hills. Two articles about the course will be published in the next The Orchardist. The course date is 13-15 April and it is intended that there be a hands-on dimension, ie, that there is fruit to press. Claudio Cignoli from Pieralisi will be present and add an international dimension/knowledge to the event.
The course will cater for probably a maximum of 30 people; with processors being given top priority. Companies will be able to put forward only one person to attend. There will be a stand-by list, so any additional places can be offered on a first come, first served basis.
There was a question about running a 2nd course but it will be important to assess how this one goes first, and also to find out if the Pieralisi representative is able to attend a second course. It was noted that if the course were to became a means of developing a licensing system, then there would have to be further courses.
Food Safety Plans. There has been a further meeting with Food Safety NZ, in relation to ONZ having a FS plan developed, that was registered with MoH and which ONZ could on-sell at a reasonable price to members. AgriQuality would be responsible for reviewing members’ processes. FS has been asked to give a quote for the work and is willing to talk about this initiative further at the processing course. One menmber’s comments about some challenges that he is meeting in getting his food safety programme in place because of MoH qualms led to comments about the value of having an organisation such as AgriQuality to conduct any Ministry-related negotiations, as is being proposed in the ONZ plan.
Research. There have been meetings with Hort Research to discuss the revised SFF application. Figures are to be finalised shortly but the budget is to be approximately $300K. Once the detail of the scope has been completed, ONZ will approach Hort NZ to look at the possibility of their involvement.
There is also a FoRST bid to be worked on focusing on oil profiles, with the hope of funding for a 5 year research project; the information would also be valuable in gathering further data about linolenic acid levels.
Exec members are to be sent a paper setting out the key features of the proposals before the 13 Feb deadline.
A further research proposal could focus on collecting data to go towards building an information base about the best harvest time for NZ olives, as international data is not applicable here.
Commodity Levy. Jim Tait in NZTE is to be contacted to discuss how to structure a funding proposal to NZTE; and Ian Turk, who is to do some initial work on the implications of seeking a levy is also to be contacted.
10. NZ Gap. The relevant exec member reported that he had completed a lot of work in developing a template document setting out what NZ GAP is and the benefits of joining. This will be run past ONZ and Peter Ensor (Hort NZ). The document could usefully be posted on the website. First step towards beginning the process of building member participation is for members to get their GroSafe certification.
There was a question about his plans to encourage uptake. He said that members had to want to do the course and that grower education is critical. Major grower issues affecting participation relate to the cost ($300 odd) and paperwork. He is focusing on why growers should want to do the course and why it will help them with marketing. It was noted that it is important that branches take ownership of the initiative and that the Wairarapa had had a seminar on NZ Gap at which Peter E. spoke. It was also noted that those wishing to sell into some supermarkets had to be NZ Gap approved.
Marketing. The Marketing person reiterated:
• the importance of using research findings to inform a marketing approach
• the need for a generic approach to be properly generic; ie, to be inclusive of the whole ONZ membership and not just those who get certification and enter awards
• the importance of the membership taking an active approach to the marketing of their oil.
There was a concern that the research that might get funded could take years to get usable findings and there is an urgency to do something now.
A exec member referred to an email discussing the development of an ONZ brochure to be used in supermarkets and with chefs and there was discussion on how this brochure concept could be developed further. A document listing all the certified oils is to be placed on the website.
Communications and website. A paper had been circulated in advance of the meeting on the website development. In relation to points raised in the paper:
• there have been favourable comments about the site and there was general agreement within the exec that it was much improved, and easily accessible
• the requests for basic information had dropped off substantially
• ONZ had not taken out any domain names because of the cost issues and this was not something ONZ now needed to do
• because of the costs involved in employing someone to post material on the site, the chair volunteered to help the ONZ member who has agreed to take on this role if there is too much work for her to manage
• it was agreed that all members should forward profiles about and photos of themselves and a format to structure the information would be provided
• there was a concern expressed about the page on the members’ website that lists members’ web addressed and how this has been formatted. The reply was that nothing was set in concrete but there seemed little reason to change the way it had been set out for the moment, especially given the few sites that are listed
• It was agreed that Anne would allocate a month in the coming year to each region during which it would be their responsibility to ensure that at least one posting focusing on issues in their region was sent on to Anne.
14. General Business
Quality Seal and related
It was noted that members were getting certification but then not applying for the quality seal stickers – displaying both is part of the certification agreement, and ONZ’s regulations on this matter need to be enforced. Letters have been sent to members re this in the past and this action had been effective. One member said he had also seen infused oils stating that they are EVOO oils; however, it appears that this is difficult to do anything about as there are no regulations to call on. The EO asked to be notified of names of groves whose oils have been certified but are not displaying the Quality Seal so he could contact them.
Peacock spot research followup
The Hawkes Bay group had invited Friday Obanor to speak about his research. Growers who had been using his spraying programme were stunned at its success. Friday would love to do more work on this issue but there are some funding problems which mean that he cannot proceed. He wondered if there were ways by which Friday could be funded to do extra work.
It was agreed that further work on this was important because growers do not know what the longer term effects of the programme are in relation to soil contamination and residues in the fruit. A longer term research programme is needed to explore issues of sustainability. It was suggested that ONZ re-contact Hort Research to try to sort out the funding issues and it was agreed that the Chair should do this.
Date of next meeting 30 Jan at 7.45
The meeting closed at 9.40 pm.
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