Congratulations to all the winners at the recent APAL Industry Excellence Awards for 2019. In particular we wanted to congratulate Jon Durham, who is the former APAL Managing Director and a current board member of J-Tech Systems.

Jon was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding passion for, dedication to, and leadership of the apple and pear industry, driving investment in research, development of the Pink Lady® brand internationally and industry development over more than 20 years.

“It’s been a particularly rewarding time for me personally working with APAL over the last 20 plus years” said Jon after being presented with the award. “Some of the highlights for me have been the application of strict bio-security measures that were implemented on the importation of New Zealand apples into Australia and developing the Future Orchards extension program for apple and pear growers which has had a significant impact on the industry” he said.

Jon spoke of the people he worked with at APAL “I was privileged to work with a dedicated professional group of people at APAL who focused strongly on developing improved opportunities for Australian apple and pear growers” he said.

The APAL award said the organisations ‘present strong position owes much to Jon’s work in taking a loose association and building it into the strong and well-financed and professional body it is today’.

Jon continues to work with the J-Tech Systems board and we’re looking forward to benefiting from his passion and guidance as we grow into the future.