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More than 30 vegetable growers and industry representatives attended the East Gippsland Vegetable Growers dinner at Lindenow on Wednesday 28th of September. The night was organized by local grower Andrew Bulmer and VGA IDO Slobodan Vujovic with pre dinner drinks courtesy of Rabobank.
President Luis Gazzola welcomed growers and speakers and spoke of the important role the VGA plays in addressing the challenges and opportunities ahead. Executive Officer Tony Imeson explained the benefits of VGA membership and challenged East Gippsland growers to renew their membership. Guest speaker Martin Kneebone, director of Freshlogic, presented a thought provoking session titled :
Martin shared his experiences with the marketing of fresh vegetables including: market penetration and segmentation, who is buying and how much and the Australian range of retail vegetables compared with that available in the UK and USA. Marketing and advertising in the food sector were discussed, including the use of locally produced, organic and free range brands and reaching consumers through Facebook.
Andrew Sullivan from Victorian Farm Safety Centre talked about his work on finding solutions to the major causes of injuries associated with hazardous manual handling. He is aiming to find the most practical, effective and low cost solutions to reducing the risk to injuries. The meeting concluded with a presentation by Slobodan Vujovic on the recent Lettuce Harvester Study Tour of the US and Italy including a video clip of a water jet/self propelled, Cos lettuce harvester, at work in the Salinas Valley, USA For more information contact your Industry Development Officers :
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