Today members of the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance (AFPA) unanimously elected Mr Scott Montague, Managing Director, Montague as AFPA Chair for the 2023 term. Mr Montague will take over from Fresh Select's John Said who served as AFPA Chair in 2022. Montague grow, pack and market a range of fresh produce including apples, pears, stone fruit, grapes, citrus and cherries. Montague also grow and market a range of branded apples well known to Australian consumers such as JAZZ™, envy™ and yello®. Mr Montague has over 25 years' experience in the fresh produce industry and has previously held a range of industry based roles. "During the past year, John Said has done a remarkable job as Chair of the AFPA, leading our efforts to address workforce challenges and support industry growth through new and improved export market access. I would like to thank John for his hard work and commitment to progressing industry issues" said Mr Montague, AFPA Chair.The election of Mr Montague has set the AFPA's agenda for the upcoming year with renewed focus on both sustainability throughout the supply chain and improving technical market access to capitalise on growth opportunities for the fresh produce industry in export markets. "I look forward to picking up where John left-off, working with retailers, government and industry stakeholders to continue to improve the operating environment for Australia's fresh produce growers.I am very focused on advancing our industry's conversation around how we can address sustainability challenges and opportunities while also supporting growers' profitability. The other key challenge is ensuring the growth of our industry, and that growth is going to come from new export opportunities, so maintaining focus on how we improve technical market access for the fresh produce industry will remain a key area of work for the AFPA", said Mr Montague. The AFPA is made up of the largest growers in the fresh produce industry, representing half of the industry turnover annually. AFPA membership is at the CEO level of each of these businesses and advocacy from the AFPA covers a range of cross horticulture issues."As a group, AFPA members represent half the turnover of our sector, but importantly, across the membership we also partner with a supplier network of more than 1,000 fresh produce businesses. As we've done for the last four years, the AFPA will continue to provide focus, direction and leadership on the issues that really matter to Australia's fresh produce growers" said Mr Montague.
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