About HIN

The Horticulture Industry Network (HIN) is a network of 21 state and national horticultural industry organisations brought together by Agriculture Victoria from the Victorian Government to increase industry collaboration and the rate of practice change within horticultural communities. The HIN creates strong working relationships between the Victorian Government and horticultural industries, facilitating uptake and adoption of innovation towards increased productivity and profitability of Victoria’s horticulture industries. The social networks created within the HIN extend the reach of services and increase resources available to deliver key information to growers and service providers.

The HIN aims to:

• Facilitate effective social networks to share knowledge, capture opportunities and work together in response to market signals, needs and demands;
• Develop innovative web-based technologies for information acquisition, sharing and adoption; and,
• Support target industries to fast track information acquisition and adoption of new technology to improve sustainable productivity, increase profits and grow exports.

HIN reach:

• 21 industry associations
• Around 16,000 horticultural growers
• 25 different industry publications

Currently HIN’s networking component is utilised by Agriculture Victoria to deliver six interconnected outputs/outcomes:

1. Industry intelligence – seasonal monthly update (season, weather impact, market & other) to distribute within network and Government
2. Overcoming isolation –  HIN members, working in isolation, get together to share learning and co-ordinate working together
3. Coaching and mentoring to help other HIN members achieve their full potential  - mentoring new members joining the network, coaching using specialist skills such as corporate training skills to assist others
4. Across industry issues and perspective – uniting HIN members with different backgrounds (job role, state vs national body representative, agenda) to work together; adapting one industry’s Best Management Practices to suit another; forum for cross pollination, looking at joint projects and potentially sharing responses to common issues ( e.g. uniform response of industry to changes in APVMA’s spray drift regulations based on DEDJTR input and clarification)
5. Bridging the gap between industry and researchers, policy analysts and establishing network for exposure of the latest research
6. Capability building/training – access to training; critical mass to facilitate training tailored and targeted to horticulture industry needs (evaluation training – project management requirement for HIA/DEDJTR, Governance, to demonstrate impact and further funding applications)

Video: Introduction to the Horticulture Industry Network(HIN) with Sue McConnell (November 2015)

Horticulture Industry Network Videos (link)

Short Videos containing topics covered in Network meetings including feedback from members.

• May 2015 - The Horticulture Industry Network met with the Port of Melbourne Corporation and with Dale Grey, Climate Variability Agronomist (DEDJTR)

• July 2015 - The Horticulture Industry Network met with Victorian DEDJTR Horticulture Biosecurity staff to become Industry Liaison Officers, to represent their industries at Biosecurity emergency events.

• September 2015 - The Horticulture Industry Network Study tour to NSW DPI - Gosford Primary Industries Institute (GPII) and Field tours

• January 2016 - The Horticulture Industry Network met with Researchers from the University of Melbourne

• April 2016 - The Horticulture Industry Network Study Tour to South Australia - SA Produce Markets, CSIRO, SARDI, AWRI, and  more

• October 2016 - The horticulture Industry Network met with Extension and Development specialists.

• December 2016  - The Horticulture Industry Network met with RDV, AusIndustry and Ag Vic to discuss grants, initiatives and strategies, as well as the new Innovation Accelerator for agriculture, SproutX.

• January 2017 - The Horticulture Industry Network met with researchers at Tatura's Stonefruit and Blush Pear field laboratories, and then at Melbourne University's researchers at the Dookie Campus. The focus of this two day event was innovative research and how it might apply to horticulture.