Pistachio Growers’ Association held our first PIT Group meeting for the 2025 year, in Robinvale and Loxton on the 11^th and 12^th June 2025, respectively. We had 38 people in attendance at each, totalling 76 across the two events.

We were fortunate to have Dr Samantha Edley, Senior Research Scientist at Agriculture Victoria Research (AgVIC) speak at both events about the Carpophilus Beetle, which has been the focus of a research project between AgVIC and Almond Board Australia, with Sam sharing the learnings from this project with pistachios growers. We also had Chris Joyce, Consultant for Australian Pioneer Pistachio Company (APPC) give an update on the latest harvest results and outlook on the market, and our newest addition to the PGAI team, Dr Shoaib Shah, share an update on the PGAI benchmarking initiative and his work to date in the research space. These presentations were replicated across the two locations.

The difference between the two events was of course location, the panellists on the grower discussion panel and the field walk.

For Robinvale, the presentations were held at the Community Centre, and the field walk at the Chislett’s Narrung Orchard, about a 45-minute drive from Robinvale. We had three panellists offer their time and expertise, answering questions on their irrigation practices and nutrient management based on their orchard’s soil types, and approaches to pest and weed control. Consensus was that it would be valuable to allocate more time to discussion panels like this in the future. Our Robinvale panellists were:

• Ryan Norton | CMV Farms, Robinvale VIC
• Andrew Bowring | Kyalite Pistachios, Kyalite NSW
• Matt Clearwater | Customised Farm Management, Griffith NSW

For Loxton, the presentations and field walk were held at Century Orchards. We were fortunate to have a good mix of growers on the panel, where they shared learnings on nutrient management, learnings from the early years of tree management, shared their gratitude for the many names that have supported the pistachio industry over the years and gave their take on “one important piece of advice” with general consensus being that listening and sharing with other growers is the wisest thing a grower can do in learning how to manage their orchard. Our Loxton panellists were:

• Brendan Sidhu & Gemma Jealous, Century Orchard, Loxton SA
• Ian McFarlane, Cobdogla, SA
• Martin Simpfendorfer, Permedah Fruits, Paringa SA

A very big thank you to the Chislett’s and Century Orchards for hosting the field walks, to our speakers for their insightful presentations, and to our discussion panellists for sharing their time and their knowledge on all thing’s pistachios. 

Out of the 76 attendees across events, we had 40 complete the post-event survey. Some key takeaways from the feedback were:

• An average of 71% across both events, reported learning something from the event that would influence their orchard management practices with the importance of orchard hygiene a main takeaway
• Overall, the speaker presentations, meeting with other growers/associates, the PGAI research update and grower discussion panel were similarly valued parts of the day, with speaker presentations a favourite for the Robinvale group, and meeting other growers a favourite for the Loxton group.
• Constructive feedback included: more time allocated for discussion panel, Q&A after presentations and for mingling, stricter adhesion to timelines and perhaps extending the day to make time for the above suggestions, June seemed to be a good time of year to meet, and there were a few calls for all speakers to use the mic!
• For next PIT group topics, the top three preferences were nutrition / fertiliser requirements for tree, water management and irrigation, and pest & disease control. This will inform our speaker selection for the next PIT group, due to be held in September / October 2025.