Minutes HTFG Board Meeting
November 17, 2017 at 3:30 pm at Offices of Calavo Growers, Inc.
Attending Members: Shinichi, Koji O, Toshi A, Ken O, Ross S, Eric W
Attending Guests: Chris Wengler, Jerrod from BEI
REPORT ON LFA
Jerrod from BEI gave a short presentation on Little Fire Ants. He suggested educating papaya growers as to what is effective for control. However, many growers wont’ attend a special presentation on LFA because they are afraid of being singled out, but are interested in the material if it was a part of other educational presentations. The presentation would take approximately 30 minutes
FINANCIAL REPORT
Toshi announced DOA grant of $2,000 to all Hawaii Ag Industries to be used for logoed promotional materials. After some discussion the group reached consensus to purchase polo shirts with HPIA logo, the words “Hawaii Papaya Industry Association” and our web-address: “hawaiipapaya.com”
Chris presented the Financial Statements. As of September HPIA had $30K in cash on hand. Toshi indicated we are in pretty good shape. We expect $80,000 VPC revenue in 2018, office expenses are expected to be $30,000, and SHAC 10% fees of $18,000 leaving $32,000 for other projects.
Eric moved and Ken seconded a motion to move HPIA to a calendar year for accounting, by filing a short year from 10-1-17 to 12-31-17, then moving to a calendar year beginning January 1, 2018. Motion was passed unanimously.
Board wants to begin collection member dues beginning in January 1, 2018. Chris Wengler is to send out bills to all know VPC paying members and to each grower member who purchased seed in 2016 and 2017, and all members attending annual conference.
Continued discussion of finances related to the 2017 Japan Reverse Trade Program. There were many expenses that were paid that will NOT be reimbursed by SHAC including entertainment expenses by Mark Yamanaka, possible speaking fees for Rod Yonemura, hotel expenses above the per diem reimbursable amounts, and alcohol purchases. Toshi agreed that in the future, all expenses will be put into a budget before the event, listing all non-reimbursable expenses in advance, and that no expenses will be paid or reimbursed by HPIA unless those expenses were approved by the Board in advance.
Ross moved and Ken seconded a motion to have HPIA pay for expenses for the Japan Reverse Trade this year even though they will not be reimbursed by SHAC. The motion carried unanimously.
SHAC AND PLANNING
On Friday January 12, 2018 at 3:00 pm the board will meet at the Calavo offices to Plan and Budget the activities for 2018 including all SHAC activities.
RAINBOW SEED PRODUCTION AND POLICIES
Shinichi estimates that by December or January there should be 60 ounces per month of Rainbow seed being produced. This is up from the 30 ounces per month during 2017. There is still a back log of over 120 acres of Rainbow seed orders yet to be filled. The current policy for distribution will remain in effect until there is no longer a back log. At that time, any grower who was on the original allocation list that has not gotten seed will be offered 2 ounces of seed per acre up to the amount of their original allocation. If seed is available, those growers who had only gotten two ounces of seed during the 2017 allocation and rationing, will be offered up to two additional ounces of seed if they need that seed to complete the planting of the original acreage. Finally, new seed at 4 ounces per acre will be offered to growers for 2018, assuming there is adequate supply of Rainbow Seed.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Ross submitted the following from PBARC:
Dr. Jon Suzuki
- The application documents to petition for permission to import Rainbow papaya into China is being prepared for submission. The application contains required biosafety information that were not found in the initial application submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China in 2012 This project is a collaboration between HPIA and University of Hawaii and PBARC scientists.
- Research is being initiated to develop papaya cultivars with broader PRSV resistance (with Tracie).
- Work is being done to improve coverage of the papaya genome sequence.
Dr. Lisa Keith
A zero-waste approach makes agriculture more profitable and addresses food and energy security issues in Hawaii. Research continued to optimize/increase production scale of Chlorella for oil and animal feed production using papaya as a feedstock. A 40 gallon SIP Bioreactor was installed at PBARC and results from lab scale have been successfully replicated. Demonstration phase production was initiated as a collaboration between DKI-PBARC, HDOA-ADC and Big Island Biodiesel. The scale-up of the demo phase has resulted in multiple, successful 150 gallon, 7 day runs of Chlorella and papaya in 270 gallon reactors; results were comparable to small scale experiments done at PBARC.
We are also looking at papaya anthracnose with some atypical symptoms.
Dr. Tracie Matsumoto
Freckle Free papaya. We are continuing selection of new hybrids of SunUp and the Freckle free papaya and Kapoho. These hybrids would have the PRSV resistance and flavor of SunUp, blemish qualities from the Freckle Free papaya and flesh color from Kapoho. We are continuing to breed for lines that will be stable for production via seeds and for quicker release, selecting hybrids for clonal propagation by tissue culture.
Virus resistance Maradol. We are testing virus resistance to the Mexican strain of PRSV in Texas in hybrids developed by crossing SunUp and Maradol. Virus resistance to this strain of PRSV is possible only when the transgene is in the homozygous (from male and female parent –same as SunUp). The fruits from this cross produced large fruits popular in Mexico and Texas.
Improved Virus resistance. Jon Suzuki and I are using multiple strategies to develop papayas resistant to multiple strains of PRSV. The Rainbow papaya is resistant to PRSV from Hawaii but susceptible to PRSV strains from other regions of the world. We are currently transforming embryos from select Kapoho lines.
Backing up papaya collection at Fort Collins. We are working with scientist at ARS in Fort Collins, CO to back up our papaya collection via cryopreservation. We are testing if this is a viable solution for long term storage of the different species and cultivars of papaya.
CANADA RESIDUE LEVELS
Ken said that Byrant Christie agreed to our proposal of $2750 per successful residue reduction.
Ross moved and Eric seconded a motion to sign an agreement with Bryant Christie to pay them for successful reside reduction levels in Canada for four chemicals: Mancozeb (Manzate and Dithane), Bifenazate (Acramite), Spinosad (Success), and Spinetoram (Delegate WG)
Meeting was adjourned at 5:30