Plant Health Australia (PHA) participated in the annual VegWatch Project Management Group (PMG) and Project Reference Group (PRG) meetings in Melbourne on 27–28 July 2026, contributing to discussion on project priorities and achievements.

Over the past 12 months, PHA has worked with project partners to strengthen vegetable industry biosecurity preparedness. This has included delivery of an endorsed Vegetable Industry Biosecurity Plan (V4.0), development of the Industry Action Plan, and delivering two training activities to test and strengthen emergency plant pest response arrangements.

PHA will continue delivering key activities under the program during 2026-27, including development of Single Point of Truth (SPoT) documents for agreed priority pests identified in the vegetable industry’s High Priority Pest list.

The PMG workshop provided an opportunity for project partners to review progress and discuss priorities for the $10 million Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy program. A hypothetical pest incursion exercise also tested how the project tools, processes and response frameworks may be applied during a biosecurity incident.

The PRG allowed members to reflect on the outcomes from the exercise and consider findings from the mid-term review. Following recent membership changes, the group includes several new members and is now chaired by Greg Owens from the Northern Territory.

The VegWatch PRG has vacancy. Growers interested in providing their experience and insights are encouraged to contact Zarmeen Hassan (zarmeen.hassan@ausveg.com.au) for further information.

VegWatch is led by AUSVEG and brings together expertise from PHA, state and territory government departments — including the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and Queensland Department of Primary Industries — as well as the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis and RM Consulting Group.

The next PMG meeting is scheduled for October 2026, with the next PRG meeting to be held in 2027.

The Vegetable Industry Biosecurity and Business Continuity Strategy (VG22004) has been funded by Hort Innovation using the Vegetable Industry research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not for profit research and development corporation for Australian Horticulture.