AgriSmart returns to Hort Connections 2026 in Adelaide
For the fourth year running, AgriSmart will be exhibiting at Hort Connections, the annual horticulture industry conference and trade show.
You’ll find the team at Stand 179 in Adelaide.
Why Hort Connections matters to horticulture operations
Hort Connections brings together growers, packhouse operators, labour providers, contractors, industry bodies, and technology partners from across Australia and New Zealand. It is one of the few events where the people running horticulture operations on the ground sit alongside the people building the systems supporting them.
That matters for AgriSmart. Workforce systems built without direct exposure to the operational pressures inside orchards, vineyards, packhouses and farms tend to fall short the moment harvest workload hits. Staying close to the people doing the work is how the platform continues to develop around real industry workflows rather than generic software assumptions.
How Hort Connections shaped AgriSmart’s
expansion into Australia
AgriSmart’s first Hort Connections in 2023 was a turning point.
The conversations across the floor that year confirmed something the team already suspected. Australian horticulture operations were navigating the same workforce complexity, compliance pressure, and seasonal labour coordination challenges that AgriSmart had been helping New Zealand growers manage for years.
Shortly after, AgriSmart established its Australian branch. More than two years on, the team has invested heavily in functionality built specifically for Australian horticulture operations including:
- Horticulture Industry Award interpretation
- 152/4 and 304/8 overtime reporting
- Piece rate compliance visibility
- TOIL tracking and balances
- PALM top-up reporting and workforce administration
- Contractor and labour hire oversight
- Biometric time and attendance capture
- Mobile crew coordination across multi-site operations
- Job costing and labour allocation reporting
- Payroll-ready workforce data
Every feature on that list came out of a conversation with someone dealing with a specific operational challenge. Growers chasing piece rate accuracy through harvest. Labour coordinators reconciling PALM hours across multiple sites. Packhouse managers trying to get accurate time records from crews spread across multiple blocks.
And that’s still how we operate today.
Callum presenting at Hort Connections 2024 in Melbourne, shortly after relocating across the Tasman to lead AgriSmart’s Australian expansion.
The conversations happening across horticulture right now
Farmers and operations managers across Australia are coordinating combinations of permanent staff, seasonal workers, contractors, labour hire teams, and PALM scheme workers, often across multiple blocks, sites and regions at once. Expectations around hours visibility, overtime thresholds, break compliance, workforce records, and Award interpretation continue to rise alongside that.
The operational topics we expect to be discussing at Stand 179 include:
- Seasonal workforce coordination across harvest peaks
- Award interpretation and overtime compliance
- PALM workforce management and reporting
- Contractor oversight and labour hire visibility
- Piece rate accuracy and compliance
- Time and attendance tracking across mobile crews
- Workforce traceability across orchards and packhouses
- Operational reporting and labour cost visibility
- Reducing manual workforce administration
At peak harvest, every one of these becomes a live operational pressure with a direct cost. Admin workload climbs, compliance gaps open up quickly, and manual processes that held together through quieter months start to fail under the volume.
Hort Connections 2026 is co-hosted by AUSVEG and the International Fresh Produce Association.
What practical workforce systems actually unlock
Manual processes and disconnected spreadsheets struggle under the volume of data modern horticulture operations now produce. A 200-strong harvest crew running across three blocks generates more workforce data in a week than most back-office systems were designed to handle.
Practical workforce systems give operational managers something different. A clear, real-time view of who is working where, how long for, under what Award conditions, and at what cost. That visibility flows through to tighter labour planning, fewer errors at week-end, stronger compliance reporting, and better cost control across multi-site operations.
It’s the difference between reacting to workforce issues after they hit the books, and seeing them while there is still time to act.
Come and find the team at Stand 179
If you are attending Hort Connections in Adelaide and want to talk through workforce management, Award interpretation, PALM administration, seasonal crew coordination, compliance visibility, or any other operational workforce challenge facing your business, come and find the team at Stand 179.
We’re looking forward to catching up with growers, partners, and familiar faces across the industry.
Heading to Hort Connections?
If you’re heading to Adelaide with workforce, compliance, or seasonal labour pressures on your mind, come and find the AgriSmart team at Stand 179. We’ll be on the floor across all three days of the event.
Book a demo to see how Australian horticulture operations are using AgriSmart to manage Award interpretation, simplify PALM administration, and bring clearer visibility across mobile crews, contractors and multi-site operations.
