WOOMBYE nurseryman Peter Young, as head of a national network of fruit tree nurseries, is leading a national conference to look at the latest developments in fruit production and orchard management.

The conference, ANFIC 97 - Stepping into the Future, is being held in Sydney this week.

Mr Young, owner of Birdwood Nursery, at Woombye, is chairman of ANFIC, the Australian Nurserymen’s Fruit Improvement Co Ltd (ANFIC); a national group of 13 commercial fruit nurseries.

Birdwood Nursery, which specialises in mangoes, citrus, lychees, avocados and persimmons, is the only ANFIC nursery in a sub-tropical region.

Mr Young conducted a workshop on canopy management techniques for evergreen tropical and sub-tropical tree crops. He said his material was the distillation of 10 years’ research and travel around Australia and to the US, Israel and South Africa.

Mr Young said the primary objective of ANFIC, which is open to new members particularly in sub-tropical areas, was to import or develop new cultivars of fruit trees to which its members have propagation rights.