AustPecans
About Us
The Australian Pecan Association Incorporated (APA) is a not-for-profit incorporated association based in Lismore NSW. APA was founded in 1996 by a group of growers with assistance from the then NSW Department of Agriculture Pecan Extension Officer Ross Loebel. APA aims to connect, inform & represent the Australian pecan industry. Membership is open to all in the industry, but only growers have voting rights.
APA Rules of Association
The objectives described below and the Constitution of The Australian Pecan Association Incorporated (vFeb2019) forms the structure within which the APA operates.
The APA’s constitution was developed from NSW Fair Trading’s “model constitution”, which covers the matters required by law under the Associations Incorporation Act 2009.
Committees
A Management Committee elected by members at our Annual General Meetings, manage the Association. All of the committee’s work is provided on a voluntary basis with the support of a part time paid Executive Officer. The current committee includes:
- President – Scott Clark
- Vice President – Geoff Bugden
- Treasurer & Secretary – Michelle Chicken
- ANIC Representative – Richard Sampson Genest
- SA Representative – Dave Degrancy
- NSW Representative – Paul O’Neill
Sub-Committees
The APA also have an Executive Committee sub-committee who meet regularly (at least monthly) to provide ongoing strategy, guidance & support for the Executive Officer. The Management Committee receive minutes of these ongoing meetings. The current Executive Committee includes:
- Scott Clark (President)
- Michelle Chicken (Secretary)
- Anne Briggs (Executive Officer)
Other APA Subcommittees are developed as required e.g. APA Conference Sub-Committee, Marketing Committee etc.
APA Annual Conference & Field Day
Each year, after harvest season, the APA host an annual conference & field day which is a great way for members and the broader pecan industry to get together and focus on big picture, global, retail and business perspectives as well as the latest grower ag tech, soil and agronomy issues. APA also run our Annual General Meeting at these events.
In 2019 we held our conference in Port Macquarie. Some of the presentations from conference can be downloaded here:
Plant Stress Monitoring in Orchards, Paul Grobler, Phytech [3.8MB]
Precision Ag Basics for Pecan Orchards, Nick Barton [2.7MB]
Sustainable Energy Solutions for Pecan Industry, Andras Nagy [1.9MB]
The South African Experience, Johan Prinsloo [2.4MB]
The Value of Ag-Tech in Agriculture, Mark Heyward [3.0MB]
What your soil and leaves are telling you, Graham Lancaster EAL SCU [5.3MB]
HCO Grading, Miriam Villen Rodriguez [15.4MB]
High Performance Biology Underpinned by Soil Health Optimisaton, Andrew Doecke [5.5MB]
Joining the Dots – Agronomy 101, Scott Herd [1.2MB]
Lessons Learnt from Macadamia Industry, Jolyon Burnett AMS [1.2MB]
Managing Rodens in Pecan Orchards, Mark Wilson, BASF [2.4MB]
Pecans Health & Nutrition, Belinda Neville, Nuts for Life Program [3.0MB]
Pecan Competitions
To coincide with the Annual Pecan Industry Conference the APA run competitions which are judged and announced at the conference. Our competition categories include:
- Best Pecan Competition
- Pecan Cooking Competition
- Photography Competition
APA invite all members and their families to submit entries for one or all of the competitions.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions on events the APA have cancelled the 2020 Pecan Industry Conference and are currently working towards holding our next conference in August 2021 in Ballina NSW.
To find out more about the APA please contact us.
