Kaifeng

In Kaifeng we met up with my friends from Maosheng Machinery, where we had a good look through the factory and had some great dinners, looked at some wheat harvesting and garlic production on scale none of us could comprehend.
We had a tour of the ancient Kings palace from the 7 dynasty, then onto the iron pagoda tower which is around the 1000years old quite incredible.

China

Hi, We have just finished our China leg unfortunately China blocks blog sites so I have been unable to update my blog until now, today we have arrived in San Francisco.
In China we started off in Guang Zhou, with a look at rice, fruit and veg production there was everything from small scale almost subsistence farmers through to 10,000ha extremely professional outfits which have traceability on a scale we all would be proud of.

Hong Kong

Just leaving Hong Kong after a short but very enjoyable visit, started with a visit to RABOBANK head quarters then a presentation from Gavilon grain. Then we headed down to the ferry terminal for a harbor cruise with a visit to the fish markets which led to a seafood feast then back to Kowloon, a quick walk through the night markets a bit of haggling and back to the metro park hotel.
Hong Kong has been quite a surprise very clean, traveller friendly and breath taking scenery mainly man made.
From here we are off to Guangzhou via ferry I do love a boat ride!!

IRRI in Los Banos Philippines

First day in the Philipines, arrived in Manila Saturday night and qantas had lost my bags again,I've got to say if nothing else they are consistent 2 flights 2 times lost bags, anyway Philipines is very tropical a can't believe anything would not grow here. We are staying at the IRRI guesthouse which is in Los Banos about 1.5 hrs north of Manila, temp about 30 degrees with the odd shower. Yesterday we travelled by bus then boat to an island and climbed to the top of the Taal Volcano had a great day finished off with a fantastic dinner hosted by Leigh Viel and his wife Sue Leigh is 2006 scholar who runs the farm at IRRI (international rice research institute)

Departing on global focus program

Hi All, After 2 days in Canberra where we covered many things about our parliament through to group dynamics we are now ready to head off to the Phillippines, let the leaning and fun begin!

CSC Rotterdam- Netherlands

Well what a few days in the Netherlands around Rotterdam, from some incredible infrastructure at Flora Holland, where speed is of the essence, auctions where 125,000 transactions are carried out every day!

We then had presentations from 3 co-operatives which were doing between 4 and 9 billion Euros in business each, truly insightful.

Then to a river cruise where we witnessed the crane ship which builds the oil rigs complete with 2 x 7000mt capacity cranes!!!

Pig production at a professional level I have not seen before, where you measure everything and I mean everything.

Highlight of the trip so far is definitely Koppert Cress today, with presentations from Fresh Retail and Rob Baan, with a focus on quality and marketing innovation which really looks outside the box, what you can do with the right presentation and perception is quite incredible.

Visit was complete with a Master Chef Lunch experience which would have any wannabe cook green with envy!

Interesting fact Holland is the largest exporter of oranges and the largest importer of oranges but does not grow any.

WHO SOWS WELL, WILL HARVEST WELL.