Meet your advisory committee members
Over the coming weeks, we will be profiling each of our advisory committee members for you to get to know a little more about them.
This week we spoke to Harry Kapiris, from the Wholesalers Advisory Committee.
 Your role at the Market:
Managing Director of Kapiris Bros. I’ve been involved with the business my whole working life.
What do you think are important issues for the industry and Market itself?
I’ve been passionate, for my 40 years in the business, about trading hours. For me, I probably only have a few more years here of full-time work, but I believe if we had later trading hours, it would do the industry a lot of good. We’re not getting a lot of outside blood in the Market; later trading hours would help change that. That being said, I do understand the challenges for buyers with road congestion and other things with buyers having to get out earlier. Perhaps once road infrastructure in Melbourne improves, a few years down the track, we should revisit trading hours.
What are you most passionate about?
The operations at the Market are very good, a lot more efficient than at Footscray Rd. Our costs of doing business since coming here have drastically reduced with big efficiencies gained.
The Market is one of those last places where a spade is a spade, and your word and your bond is everything.
What are you positive about for the future?
I think cooking shows like MasterChef have helped the industry and created a lot more interest in cooking to the general public. People value and want fresh quality produce, which the Market can deliver. I think the A Better Choice program has a lot of potential and it’s something now that the entire industry can get behind. I’d be happy to contribute financially to the program, and I think it’s something everyone here should be a part of with the MMA taking a leading role.
Why did you want to be a member of the advisory committee?
I wanted to make sure there was an independent voice for those wholesalers who are not members of Fresh State.
What’s something most people wouldn’t know about you?
Don’t think there is too much people don’t know about me; I’m an open book.
Advisory committees work with the MMA to advise on matters relating to Market operations and the fresh produce industry, and committee members are a great source of information and advice for Market users. To find out who all the members of the advisory committees are, please visit the MMA website. |
Often you’ll see MMA management taking tour groups around the Market. These tours are sometimes made up of people who can partner with or offer services for the benefit of Market businesses.
CQUniversity Australia has captured the attention of the mango industry with a successful field trial of the prototype of its auto-harvester. The technology achieved 75 per cent efficiency in automatically identifying and picking fruit.
