In brief: NT presence at Hort Connections 2018

Dr Matt Hall (DPIR) attended the Hort Connections conference held in Brisbane on the 18-20 June. He was joined by colleagues from the NTFA (Greg Owen, Camila Philip and Laura Cunningham) who made up the NT contingent.  

This year’s conference had a strong agri-tech focus with a mix of near-market and longer term technologies in the pipeline. The trade floor had close to 200 booths representing a diverse range of businesses across the supply chain.

Whilst there, Matt presented an “Update on horticulture in the Northern Territory” at the Future of Horticulture 2018 event organised by the Australian Society of Horticultural Science (AuSHS). Providing a high level overview of the industry covering the different north-south climatic regions, opportunities, constraints and the economic importance of horticulture in the NT. Matt said that

“The talk was well received as the audience weren’t very aware of horticultural production in the north and the challenges it faces. They were blown away that the Northern Territory produces over half of the mangoes grown in Australia.”

Having worked in the fruit export space, Matt’s top pick for innovative science was Sandon Adams (Oritain) presentation on scientific traceability – proving origin, protecting reputations. Oritain uses “fingerprints” which are derived from the chemical composition of plants to scientifically verify product origin. In an environment where paper and electronic records are venerable to tampering, isotope analysis provides scientific verification of the products origin and defends again fraud.

Matt is the Northern Territory AuSHS representative.


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