Infopest - the end of an era.
For many years, Infopest has been Australia’s number one AgVet chemical database. Originally developed by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (then DPI), QFVG (then Growcom) took over the product in 2012.
Operating as a free service for five years, in 2017 Growcom brought in user charges via an online subscription model. QFVG always saw this service as a necessary one for our growers and we never wanted to add to the burden of costs so annual subscriptions were set as a very modest $50+ GST annually.
In 2022, as part of a Board review into all activities of Growcom, a strategic review of Infopest was undertaken. The review confirmed what we had known all along, that Infopest had been a long-standing platform for the dissemination of critical information to support the identification and use of AgVet chemicals by users throughout Australia however despite being recognised as the number one platform for AgVet chemical information in Australia, it failed to generate substantive revenue to ensure its long-term viability. Basically, although valued it had become entrenched as a given in the horticultural landscape.
The review suggested Infopest held significant potential that may be unlocked with the right business model in place. However, this potential needed capital and skilled personnel. The board set the task to find an entity to adopt and further the program and in the past year every effort has been made to find a way forward, and even though we have been close to finding a great result for industry, we ended the year being unsuccessful.
Just before Christmas we received news that another platform may be in operation shortly and as such had to decide whether to continue to provide this service at the cost of our members. A decision was made that Infopest would be shut down at the end of January.
We’d like to take this moment to thank all who have been involved in Infopest over the years. Janine who put her life's work into this platform, David who was a huge part of it behind the scenes, Yikong, Denise, Kaylee, Richard, Chevonne and Andre and lots of people who have gone before them – thank you for your hard work and dedication – for those of you not familiar with this work – it is time consuming, detailed and needs much concentration!!
Emails went out to impacted licence holders as to their options. And on 31 January, the platform closed with all access closed to prevent any liability issues around unmaintained data.
