This Week in the Market – edition 191 – 7 August 2018

• Market trading hours results are in
• Full site emergency evacuation drill
• MMA Board visits Mildura

Market News

The results are in…

The results from the Market trading hours survey are in, and we are a Market community divided…

The survey, sent to business principals, showed an almost three-way split between trading hours moving to an earlier opening, later opening and remaining the same.
28% of respondents opted for a later opening, 35% opted for an earlier opening time and the highest percentage at 37% wanted trading hours to remain unchanged.
When broken down by buyers, stand holders and store holders, each Market user group has a stronger preference towards one of the options, and each one is different. Most Buyers would prefer an earlier Market, Store holders a later Market and Stand holders prefer hours to remain the same.

What next? 
Without a clear preference from the Market community, many factors will need to be considered and no decision will please everyone. The MMA will now speak with advisory committees before reaching a decision on Market trading hours in the coming weeks.
If a change was warranted it would first run as a 90-day trial and be evaluated before the MMA considers adopting alternative trading hours on a permanent basis.

The Fresh Five

This week we talk to Peter Tran.
1. Your role at the Melbourne Market: I’m the director of Produce of Virginia, we sell tropical, exotic and Asian lines, we’ve been in the Market for about 8 years now.
2. If you could only take three fruits or vegetables with you to a desert island, which would you take: Lychees because they’re juicy and expensive, mangoes (I hate the smell but love the taste) and bananas. I’ll take tropical fruit to my tropical island, and then hopefully go on to own the island.
3. When was the last time you bought flowers for someone:  My wedding, which was last month. I got all the flowers for the wedding from here at the Flower Market. My missus said to me “Can I leave you in charge of flowers,” and I told her, “I might work in the Market but I know nothing about flowers”.
I showed Fidrim at Halit Flowers a photo of some nice looking white flowers and he sorted me out. The flowers looked great, but I still have no idea what they were.
4. Tell us something that is on your ‘bucket list’: I’ve never really thought about that question, I don’t have a bucket list, I live in the moment! If I think about it, I’d like to retire one day and race cars.
5. What do you most enjoy about working at the Melbourne Market: I love every moment of it, and you can put that on the record! Oh, and plus the free fruit and veg…

MMA Board visits Mildura

The MMA Board recently traveled to Mildura to visit a number of businesses from the citrus industry.
The trip is part of the MMA’s commitment to continue to obtain a better understanding of the needs of our customer base and the challenges facing the industry. The Board visited Mildura Fruit Company, Hedricks Farm (a grower for Mildura Fruit Company) and Sun West Farms (owned by Nutrano).
The key take-away from the visit was understanding the potential strength of the export market, particularly for citrus and grapes, and the associated implications and opportunities this presents for the Market.
The Board are keen to do more external site visits, if you are interested in hosting the MMA Board for a tour, please email submissions@melbournemarket.com.au.

Full site emergency evacuation drill

On Wednesday 22nd August at 10am, we will be conducting a full site emergency evacuation drill.
This drill will evacuate all tenants on Market land, including all administration building tenants, Buyers’ walk tenants, visitors, and subcontractors on site.
Upon hearing the site evacuation tones everyone will need to follow site evacuation procedures and MRO direction.
The drill should take approximately 20 minutes.

Industry News

Australian stonefruit exports hit 10-year high

Access to the Chinese market has propelled Australia’s stonefruit industry to its best export performance in over a decade.
The volume of Australian peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots exported over the 2017/18 season climbed 27 per cent year-on-year to 17,785 tonnes, according to figures released by peak industry body Summefruit Australia. The trade was valued at A$65.17m (US$48m).
Read more on the Produce Plus website.

New tool empowering Victorian schools to make healthier choices

Having a healthier school canteen is now even easier, with free online menu assessments on FoodChecker.
FoodChecker is a Victorian Government website that helps schools find out if the food and drinks they supply are in line with the healthy school canteen guidelines.
With FoodChecker schools can assess their whole canteen menu and get instant feedback on each recipe and product, and recommendations for healthy changes.
Schools can also use FoodChecker to search a database of thousands of foods and drinks to find the healthiest options.

Hort Connections speaker presentations now available online

Hort Connections 2018 brought together a huge line-up of local and international expert speakers to discuss the big issues facing Australian and global horticulture.
The presentations and videos from the three days of Hort Connections 2018 have been uploaded online so you can revisit the presentations you saw and catch up on the ones you didn’t!

Key Dates

Friday 31 August  –  Market 3rd birthday celebrations

Ask the MMA

If you’ve got a question for the MMA email it to submissions@melbournemarket.com.au.