ARLP Course 16 Case Study in WA

So many industries – so many similarities: ARLP Course 16 Case Study in WA

It takes a fertile imagination to draw parallels between rural industries as diverse as fishing, dairy, grains, olives and wine.

However, each of these sectors was in the mix when participants in course 16 of the ARLP visited Perth and WA’s southwest in June to study some of the complexities of food security.

Issues that emerged across all areas were probably closest to the surface in the state’s rich Western Rock Lobster industry. Felicity Horn, Executive Officer with the Western Australian Fishing Industry Council (WAFIC) and a graduate of Course 15, organised a comprehensive overview of the industry for the visitors. This included a brief tour of Fremantle Fishing Boat Harbour before a case study into the downturn of the lobster fishery, followed by an evening sharing local seafood and stories with some of WA’s commercial fishermen.

Felicity’s role with WAFIC and her younger years in a rock lobster fishing family meant that she was able to provide a broad-ranging yet succinct look at the pluses and minuses of the industry which included:

• an overabundance of red tape
• too many operators stripping the resource
• a possible decline in the resource due to climatic differences
• government departmental interference and
• unsubstantiated scientific research

Tony Wolfe a course 15 participant asked whether all this sounded familiar – the reality being that the same issues could apply to any number of industries on a daily basis.

It soon became apparent that answers depended on who questions were put to.

(Caroline Rhodes, Tony Wolfe, Jane Oakley, Course 16)

The revelation that one hundred boats – a quarter of the lobster fleet – had left the industry in the past 12 months was probably the most telling insight of the day. It posed many questions for the ARLP group, not the least being why.

Is it too hard to stay in the industry? Is red tape the problem? Are stocks depleted as the WA Fisheries Minister claims? Are industry players treated equally?

A number of operations in the Margaret River region raised the same baffling diversity of opinion … what worked, what didn’t, and who was to blame for industry problems. The Margaret River producers – wineries, dairy farms and olive groves – were all part of a newer influx to the area attempting to make the most of produce best suited to the region’s climate and soil types. They were the antithesis of earlier ventures which had turned over large areas of highly productive land to inappropriate, speculative crops.

One of these producers, Imre Mencshelyi, affects a form of retirement after 40 years with the grain group Cooperative Bulk Handling, growing table olives, producing quality olive oil and running Wiltshire Horn sheep on a farm at Karridale south of Margaret River. Imre believes the new breed of producers in the area are well placed for the likelihood of climate change, with both wine and olive producers benefiting from what global warming might bring in terms of warmer, less rainy winters and longer summers.

Another Margaret River dweller, Neville Haddon, came from the timber industry but his family has run its dairying business in the region since 1980. He and another 20 farmers are part of the Challenge Dairy Cooperative which casts a wide net in its attempt to stay competitive in the industry. Challenge Dairy is involved in the production of A2 milk which is developing a growing following in the face of consumer desire for allergen-free products, an issue that has resulted in claims and counter-claims as to the benefits of the product.

Challenge also makes cheese and yoghurt and ships 16 million litres of milk a year to Singapore and Malaysia in large glycol-chilled tanks that bypass the need for traditional refrigeration, keeping the milk cool over the course of the seven day voyage.

Much of the future of Margaret River appears to be based around the visitor experience. Voyager Estate Wines is in the process of a major redevelopment that targets greater visitor involvement and understanding in the crafting of its premium wines.

Imre Mencshelyi says he believes that tourism and visitor facilities have to be part of the mix for success. “I get thousands of cars past my gate every week,” he says.

Imre’s son Andrew, who heads CBH’s Road and Rail Contracts division, arranged for Course 16 to visit part of the company’s extensive grain storage and loading facilities in the port of Kwinana.

For the uninitiated – and here we can include some of the course members– before industry deregulation in 2007, the Australian Wheat Board had the right of veto over all Australia’s wheat exports, including the WA crop which was completely isolated from grain grown anywhere else in Australia.

Deregulation may have got the AWB monkey off CBH’s back but is the alternative a better thing? At last reports there were 23 independent exporters in the West registered with the national export regulatory body the Wheat Export Authority (WEA).

( Felicity Horn, Course 15, Speaks with local WA fisherman)

“We’re operating in what is now a spot market for grain competing with these other buyers,” Andrew Mencshelyi says. “It’s a balancing act between service and cost for CBH, offering a fair enough price to our cooperative members to attract the tonnage necessary to make a fist of the business.”

Cathy O’Donohue, a course participant, says the case study reminded her of the beach ball analogy that emerged during the group’s visit to India.

“We could all be looking at the same big stripy ball but, depending on what angle you were seeing it from, the colours were different.

“That’s the way it was with so many of the questions raised during our time in WA. It all depended on who you asked, because everyone had a different opinion.”

Tony Wolfe said the ARLP had challenged participants to explore deeper and consider issues and perspectives other than the obvious.

“Analysing the comments of the people we spoke to, I was able to draw on aspects of my accumulated learning throughout the program, including balancing the ethics of popular verses responsible decision making, understanding the need for differing personality types to offer and receive information in varied formats and being able to see the difference between consumerism and sustainability.

“It’s fair to say that our predetermined views have been challenged through exposure to these and other issues, and I believe I now exercise a far greater balance in my own decision making processes.”

Jane Milburn an ARLP participant who works as a rural journalist made several observations – notably that to be effective in a role, one needs to have across-the-board knowledge of an issue rather than getting caught up in one aspect. Self-interest gets in the way of the greater good, with the result that there’s often conflict between what’s good for individuals and what’s good for an industry.

Troy Fischer, another member of the course group, echoed Jane’s sentiments on self-interest and suggested that people operated this way most of the time. “There’s often an absence of consensus or a common viewpoint,” he said.

Such is the challenge of leadership: finding a path through a tangled web of competing interests. It's definitely not for the lazy or the timid!