vegetables

58
L-R: Howard Shapland and John Shannon.
John Shannon:
It’s all happening in Western Australia
HARD-WORKING AND PASSIONATE ABOUT THE VEGETABLE INDUSTRY, JOHN SHANNON
HAS COME A LONG WAY FROM WORKING ON HIS FAMILY’S BEEF CATTLE ENTERPRISE IN
QUEENSLAND. VEGETABLES AUSTRALIA SPOKE TO THE VEGETABLESWA CEO ABOUT THE
ISSUES FACING HIS STATE, PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AND ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR.
John Shannon has overseen
plenty of projects in his seven
years at vegetablesWA, with
three of those years spent as
the peak industry body’s Chief
Executive Officer.
It could be said vegetablesWA
is forward-thinking, with an
eye on improving growers’
businesses and getting them
export-ready. When talking to
John, it is obvious he is proud
of the direction the Western
Australian vegetable industry
is taking.
“Seeing growers stay in the
business and become more
profitable is the bottom line.
It’s particularly gratifying to see
young growers doing well in
the industry,” John said when
asked about the rewards his
role brings.
John’s passion for the vegetable
industry extends back to his
university days. He grew up in
Queensland where his family
runs a beef cattle enterprise
and, wanting to continue being
involved in rural industries, he
studied rural science at the
University of New England in
Armidale, New South Wales.
Following that, John spent
a period of years working
at the Federal Department
of Agriculture – now the
Department of Agriculture and
Water Resources – working
across a range of different
policy and program issues
before moving to Perth.
“I was looking for something
closer to my farming roots and
the perfect opportunity came up
at vegetablesWA,” John said.
“I’ve now been here for nearly
seven years and loving every
moment of it.”
When asked about the issues
facing the Western Australian
vegetable industry, John said
they were similar to the ones
faced by the industry nationally.
“For us, we’ve got the
challenge of ever-increasing
input costs. We’ve got problems
with labour as an input cost
and we’ve got problems
with markets, particularly
the relationships between
growers and wholesalers in the
wholesale markets,” he said.
“We’ve got other more
immediate crisis situations that
come up when we’ve got issues
to do with biosecurity etc., but I
guess the longer term problems
are going to be water, labour,
biosecurity and markets.”
John said the major issues
require ongoing advocacy and
policy work with both State
and Federal Governments to
make sure the right settings
are in place.
“We’re very lucky in Western
Australia – we’ve got a Royalties
for Regions scheme where
government is investing in
creating new horticultural
irrigation precincts, so that’s
certainly positive but we need to
keep pressure on to make sure
that the new water management
act works for the best result for
industry,” he said.
Under John’s reign as CEO,
vegetablesWA has established
a range of programs, dipped
its toes into social media and
marketing campaigns and hired
staff which have benefited the
industry.
Having recognised that
a third of its members are
Vietnamese, the appointment
of a Vietnamese Field Extension
Officer was made around four
years ago. This has greatly
assisted Vietnamese growers to
implement good practice both
in terms of agronomic issues as
well as food safety.
vegetablesWA has also piloted
an aggregated purchasing
scheme for insurance to combat
rising input costs. This has seen
growers save between 20-40
per cent on their premiums.
Meanwhile, in line with its
export focus, the peak industry
body has established a grower
portal, which gives growers
easier access to their own
agricultural produce
submission data. It also enables
people in export markets, who
are looking to access Western
Australian produce, to search
for growing operations that
produce particular lines and
are export-ready.
John said he is extremely
proud of what vegetablesWA
has been able to achieve so far.
“I think we’re in an
increasingly exciting time
which is good; however, there
are increasing challenges for
growers and the industry so
trying to stay ahead of the
game is something that we
will continue to do,” he said.
i
For more information,
please visit
vegetableswa.com.au.