Annual General Meeting - 2021

Membership

Memberships increased by 9 to be 117 at 30 June 2021.

Revenue

Membership fees from Foundation members is the main source of revenue. Revenue was up significantly relative to 2019-20 because of the decision taken by the Board of Directors to set 2019-20 membership fees to $0 for membership renewals. For 2020-21, membership fees returned to normal and the number of members also increased.

For the current financial year, revenue includes a donation of $6,575 from the Organic Federation of Australia on its winding up.

Expense

Expenses were down by 49% mostly due to several one-off issues resulting in higher expenses for 2019-20, including:

• a one-off insurance cost in 2019-20 for backdating association liability coverage to OIA Ltd's original date of commencement
• payment for legal advice in 2019-20 of $1,882 in respect of the proposed merger with OFA
• two annual IFOAM membership payments in 2019-20 and none in 2020-21
• no workshop expenses in 2020-21

Overall financial position

We returned a profit last year of $4,848, following the loss in 2019-20. We currently have cash assets of $15,298, membership fees receivable of $7,480, and liabilities of only $822.

The Chair of the Board of Directors

• I want to particularly thank the previous Chair of the Board of Directors, Dalene Wray, for all the work she has done in getting OIA Ltd established as the industry's peak body.
• The last 12 months was another difficult one for organic operators. The pandemic has caused widespread problems for businesses, particularly those who export—a lack of access to reliable sea and air cargo options and spiraling freight spices severely impacted our exporters ability to remain competitive in export markets. Overall, organic operators have been even more focused on their own businesses, but industry issues have still been progressing.
• We continue to lobby for improved accountability and transparency arrangements for industry regulation.
  • Our previous Chair, Dalene Wray, represented all organic operators on an advisory group set up by the Minister for Agriculture.
    • The Organic Industry Advisory Group was established last December to consider whether Australia’s current domestic organic regulatory system was fit for purpose to facilitate industry development.
    • The Government has asked for the advisory group to reconvene to act as a sounding board to provide industry insight into the issues impacting the organics industry.
  • In December, we have made a submission to the FSANZ inquiry into irradiation as a phytosanitary measure for all fresh fruit and vegetables. We argued that the future of Australian agriculture lies in clean, regenerative approaches—as used by our certified organic members—and so FSANZ should reject the proposal.
  • In August, we lobbied the Government for Working Holiday Maker visa holders wishing to volunteer on Certified Organic and Biodynamic Farms to accrue those days towards their second- and third-year eligibility criteria.
  • We have lobbied OISCC on reforms to its structure and operation. The substance of our lobbying hasn’t been addressed so far.
• OIA Ltd was proud to sponsor the Best Wine in Show Award in June for Winestate Magazine. The magazine had a feature in its July edition on the best organic and biodynamic wines of the year.
• Our industry worked hard with a team from across Oceania on a bid to host the Organic World Congress 2024 in Brisbane. Unfortunately, we lost out to Tunisia, but the collaborative work sees us well placed for closer relations with our Oceania neighbours on a few fronts.
• Our previous Chair, Dalene Wray, was interviewed in June by the ABC's Queensland Country Hour about the prospects for organic beef from the UK trade agreement. Dalene also talked about the opportunities for all organic exports and the difficulties of exporting in a Covid world.
• In August, we participated in a strategic planning workshop for AgriFutures and made the case for R&D funding for the organic industry.
• We also launched an Organic Marketplace on our website to showcase the quality organic products and services available from our Foundation members.

Nomination of directors

Nominations of candidates to become a director must be made and seconded by a financial full member of OIA Ltd—that is, the nominator and seconder must be certified organic operators and not have any prior year membership fees outstanding.

Directors do not need to be certified organic operators or members.

The candidates

Three nominations for director were received by the Company Secretary.

Candidate profiles

Ian James

Ian grew up in the marginal areas of the central wheatbelt in Western Australia on a large broad acre wheat and sheep property. Educated in Perth Ian began working on sheep stations in the rangelands further north before returning to the family farm to settle down and raise a family.

Ian has 4 grown children and now lives and works together with his wife Jodi on their Organically Certified property near Meckering, 2 hour east of Perth. Ian has previously been involved in politics as a candidate for both state and federal parliament in 6 election campaigns for the WA Greens.

Ian has a keen interest in working to secure a strong future for organic operations in Australia.

Carissa Wolfe

Peter Hislop Speers

Peter has been involved in the organic industries since the early 1990s, and was a part of the first organic banana exports from Cairns to Osaka, Japan which at the time was a significant collaboration project between retailers and organic producers.

From early 2000s, Peter established an organic specialist Account Management firm called Palotus Pty Ltd (www.palotus.com). Within this company, Peter and his team initiated the first direct organic vendor to a major retailer. This became a significant contributor to the retailer brand, and in the years to follow became a leading organic food brand.

In supporting organic producers, Peter has developed knowledge in supply chain products and services that enhance the organic food chain, including paper-based punnets which replaced plastic packaging on supermarket shelves from 2017. In 2020, Peter deployed certified compostable film on a national organic product range—a significant achievement toward removal of single use plastics in food packaging and, perhaps more importantly, a step toward sustainably packaging solutions for organic products.

Peter brings knowledge and experience in organic production, supply chain and retail environments.

The procedure for the election of directors

The AGM will first decide how many directors to appoint. The minimum is 7 and the maximum is 11 (clause 11.1 of the Constitution).

Seven (7) directors were elected at the last AGM, but Dalene Wray resigned her directorship on 28 September. So, there are 6 continuing directors. The remaining director positions will be declared vacant.

If the number of candidates is less than or equal to the number of vacancies, then all candidates are duly elected as director.

If there are unfilled vacancies, candidates may be accepted from the floor of the meeting (clause 4 of the Election By-laws).

If there are more candidates than the number of vacancies, the Secretary will conduct a preferences based secret ballot using an electronic voting system (clause 2 of the Election By-laws).

Voting members are able to amend their ballot paper at any time until the election is closed and the results tallied (clause 3 of the Election By-laws).

Carissa Wolfe provided an oral report from the Board covering the following points.

• The Board will be convening a strategic planning workshop in the first quarter of 2022. Items to consider include:
  • developing proposals for R&D funding
  • developing industry policy positions
  • funding an executive function
  • closer collaboration with the certifiers
• Just last week, the Government announced that it would undertake consultations with the industry on improving Australia’s domestic organic regulatory framework.
  • This would seem to be in response to the 29 July report of the Organic Industry Advisory Group. The Group advised the Minister for Agriculture that the current gaps in regulation create barriers to, and increase the cost of, market access, and also risks the integrity of organics supply chains and reduces consumer confidence in organic products.
  • We welcome the consultations as the next step in progressing the case for improved organic regulations.
  • The Organic Industry Advisory Group will be reconvened and OIA will nominate a representative to participate. However, we would also like to see the composition of the Group broadened to be properly representative of the industry.
• We have been consistently and quietly lobbying Government around several themes:
  • we need consistency of regulation across domestic and export markets
  • we need to lift the standard of regulation to improve the confidence of producers, consumers and export markets in Australia’s organic produce 
    • we need to review domestic (including import) and export regulatory arrangements
    • we need to review the effectiveness and professionalism of how those regulatory arrangements are implemented
  • at the core of this is a conversation around the National Standard versus AS6000
    • we don’t want to rule out any options at present—we prefer to take a principles approach to selecting the best regulatory arrangements for the future
    • regardless of which standard, either standard will need significant investment to meet future needs
    • we need to consider world best practice—we have been too insular in the past

Two other issues were raised in relation to strategy.

• Carolyn Suggate raised that it would be useful for OIA to coordinate an industry register of fraud / complaints / risks.
• Alex Mitchell suggested that the webpage should include a clear tagline that represents OIA as the industry peak body and its authority.

The Chair undertook that the Board would consider these two issues at its next meeting.