It’s our birthday, so we’re going to celebrate you!

2023 marks Growcom’s 100 years in operation and what a journey it’s been! Multiple structural changes, name changes, address changes, thousands of staffing changes and strategic direction changes not to mention 100 years of dealing with various political, social and environmental issues. One thing that hasn’t changed has been our commitment to the industry we are passionate about. 

I’m proud of the dedication, pragmatism and sheer grit growers and Growcom staff have demonstrated to get us to this point. Each year, each grower, each staff member has added to the foundation of horticulture in Queensland, leaving a legacy for generations to come.  

While our official 100th birthday is in November, we think we are old enough to have earned the right to celebrate all year long. The thing is though, we aren’t celebrating Growcom, QFVG, COD or whatever you may think of us as, we are celebrating all of Queensland Horticulture, all year long, with 2023 being self-proclaimed as the “Year of Horticulture”. 

It’s time to celebrate all things horticulture, educate consumers, retailers and the next generation grower, and advocate strongly and loudly.  

We have three main focus areas for 2023: profit, people and planet, and they have been mindfully placed in that order. We have steely resolve in our pursuit of profit in the horticultural sector. There is always much talk about labour and environmental issues however we must get the profitability of agribusiness front and centre before we can even start addressing the other two points.  

We will be taking this unique opportunity to strengthen our existing relationships with regional horticulture and commodity groups, our partners and government. And using it to forge new relationships with the same.  

There’s going to be a lot of important work done but we are also going to have some fun. From guerrilla style, overnight pop-up events, to a collector’s edition Queensland Horticulture scratch and sniff seasonal calendar the ideas we have to celebrate, educate and advocate range from conservative to crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way as doesn’t that just reflect horticulture on a daily basis?