Hort Innovation is committed to a culture of continuous improvement within its organisation, especially when it comes to delivering value for growers.
Part of this commitment is listening to grower feedback on our performance, including through the Grower Sentiment Survey 2021. The survey collected grower perceptions of Hort Innovation as investors in research, development, extension and marketing (RD&E and M), communication and interaction with growers, and its information products and services.
Hort Innovation first undertook this survey in 2017 and did a follow up in 2021.
The survey found that Hort Innovation has extended its information products and services to almost all respondents and, despite COVID-19 disruptions, most have interacted with the organisation over the past two years. As a result, knowledge of the organisation’s activities is widespread but, consistent with 2017, less so among non-members.
Despite relatively widespread engagement, there remains a segment of respondents, particularly among those from larger enterprises, who would benefit from closer and more frequent interaction and clearly communicated responses to the feedback they provide to Hort Innovation.
The results suggest there may be an opportunity to create greater awareness of research and marketing achievements to increase attribution of RD&E and M benefits to Hort Innovation. Additionally, while satisfaction with short-term R&D investments is more widespread than in 2017, there is dissatisfaction with long-term and marketing investments among select growers, including those from larger organisations. Closer collaboration, enabling greater input from these segments, is likely to be received positively.
The results provide Hort Innovation with valuable feedback that leads to new approaches and improvements. Examples include:
- increased consultation and strategic focus for short- and long-term investments through refreshed Strategic Investment Plans (SIPs) and Annual Investment Plans (AIPs)
- greater collaboration with industry through grower forums, workshops and advisory panels, and
- new internal processes and systems that increase speed and transparency in contracting investments.
In an ever-changing world, there will always be more to do. Hort Innovation looks forward to continuing to hear from growers as part of its journey of improvement and meeting expectations.
That is why Hort Innovation will be looking to enhance the survey. It is going to improve the survey’s structure and ensure the survey collects more valuable insights to help Hort Innovation do its role better. During the course of this year, Hort Innovation will be resetting the survey structure to reflect more regionality, cross- commodity and differences in growers so it captures more market intelligence to help Hort Innovation be even more effective. The key outcome of the survey refresh will be the establishment of a more definitive baseline to report against in future.