Annual General Meeting - 2022

Membership

Memberships decreased in net terms by 1 to be 116 at 30 June 2022. This reflects 49 lapsed memberships and 48 new memberships.

* Members who have already paid their fees for 2022-23. Members only have to have paid previous year fees to be financial.

Membership fees

Following consultation with members at the General Meeting of 11/07/2022, the Board implemented a new membership fee structure for 2022-23, based on the business size of the member:

Foundation memberships are a minimum of $250. Small businesses, individuals and hobby farmers can become Foundation members, or continue to be Foundation members, by paying $250. Foundation members will close to new members on 30 June 2023.

Revenue

Membership fees from Foundation members was the main source of revenue. Revenue from membership fees declined last year because the Board decided to write-off membership fees where those fees were overdue by more than 1 year OR where it’s understood that the member is insolvent or no longer organic. $4,572 in membership fees were written-off on 30 June 2022.

For the remaining accounts receivable, members have been advised the amount of the arrears and requested to pay as soon as possible. They have also been advised that they may not vote at the AGM while the arrears remain outstanding. So far this financial year, $530 (30%) of the remaining arrears has been collected.

Revenue includes donations of $6,575 in 2021-22 from the Organic Federation of Australia on its winding up and $3,000 in 2022-23 from NASAA to assist with membership promotion.

Expense

Expenses were mostly in line with the previous year.

Overall financial position

We returned a profit last year of $7,839, compared with a profit of $4,848 in the previous year. Total equity was $16,722.

We currently have cash assets of $23,923, membership fees receivable of $2,170, and liabilities of only $212.

Dalene Wray, Chair of the Board of Directors, provided an oral report to the meeting.

Submission on domestic regulation

On 18 March 2022, we provided a submission to the Government on their Consultation Regulation Impact Statement (RIS) on how Australia regulates organic products domestically.

We noted the profound global shift towards more sustainable food systems, driven by trends in both consumption and production. Organics is at the centre of this shift. But Australia has a relatively undeveloped domestic organic market as a direct result of confused government policies and responsibilities. In comparison, overseas consumption and production is supported by the implementation of comprehensive regulation of organic production and marketing, and significant financial and policy support from government. In fact, Australia will soon be the only advanced nation that has not implemented domestic regulation.

Worse still, our lack of domestic regulation is undermining efforts to improve market access for organic exporters. Our target markets, quite rightly, question the equivalence of our organic production systems, when there is no domestic organic regulation in place to provide them with some assurance of our market integrity.

Only domestic legislation will provide the necessarily regulations required to adequately protect organic consumers and producers, and provide the assurity needed for improved export market access.

Domestic regulation and Minister's Advisory Group

OIA participated in the Agriculture Minister’s Organics Industry Advisory Group (OIAG). However, we expressed concern to the Government that the OIAG should be expanded to include a balanced representation of organic operators from each of the six certifying organisations.

The OIAG provided a report to the Minister on adequacy of domestic regulation. It also provided comments on work undertaken by PWC to describe the costs and benefits of regulation.

The OIWG report was not released by the Government.

Industry survey on domestic regulation

At the end of 2021, we undertook an industry survey of views on domestic regulation to inform our submission to the Government. There was overwhelming support (91%) for the regulation of the term 'organic'. Respondents indicated a preference for this to be implemented through a separately legislated scheme and administered by a new regulator.

OISCC reforms

We had been corresponding with the Department of Agriculture to express concern that, while we felt OISCC and the National Standards Sub Committee (NSsC) system has served the Australian industry well for the last decade, the system needed reform to address potential conflicts of interest, to improve transparency, and to increase stakeholder engagement to best serve Australia’s organic industry into the future.

On 30 September 2021, we escalated our concerns:

• the responses we received from OISCC displayed neither the urgency nor solutions that we were expecting
• we were dismayed to learn that the President of OISCC, the first to be notionally independent of the certifiers, was resigning after only a few months in the role
• we understood that two certifiers have resigned as OISCC members
• we were deeply concerned about irregularities in membership changes of NSsC 

Coalition of Certifier Organisations in Australia

OIA is hosting a forum next week of certifier organisations and the Department of Agriculture. The aim is to agree an MOU on industry cooperation, develop and implement a code of practice, and oversee annual organic industry reports.

Membership fees

At the General Meeting of members on 11 July, the Board consulted the members on whether to change the structure and level of fees for 2022-23. There was a consensus reached that the Board should implement a tiered structure of membership fees, lift the minimum rate, and charge larger businesses more.

The Board implemented a new membership fee structure for 2022-23, based on the business size of the member.

The 2021 AGM appointed nine (9) directors. During the year, Carissa Wolfe resigned as a Director and Chair of the Board. Dalene Wray was appointed as a replacement Director at the General Meeting of members on 11 July, and she was subsequently elected to become Chair of the Board.

The terms of the following Directors expired at the AGM, and they were eligible to stand again for election:

• Dalene Wray
• Jacky Williams
• Janie McClure
• Julia Speight
• Mark Anderson
• Sam Statham
• Sue Shelton

There are 2 continuing directors:

• Peter Hislop Speers
• Ian James

The AGM decided that for the coming year, seven (7) directors will be appointed.

Five nominations for director were received by the Company Secretary.

As the number of candidates was equal to the number of vacancies, the Secretary declared all candidates to be duly elected as director.

Corporations law defines small companies limited by guarantee (CLBGs) as having less than $250k revenue.

Small CLBGs are not required to prepare financial accounts or appoint an auditor.

As the company is not legally required to appoint an auditor and the company's revenues are not sufficiently large to warrant the expense, the AGM decided that no auditor would be appointed for 2022-23.

There was a general discussion on strategy led by the Chair of the Board. Topics discussed included:

• benchmarking data for the organic industry
• contribution of the organic industry to the Sustainable Development Goals
• the coalition of certifiers forum being convened by OIA
• membership fee structure
• role of Agrifutures in supporting organic operators