Neil Barker awarded Order of Australia

Neil Barker has been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2026 Australia Day Honours List for his service to the nation’s fresh produce export industry.

Barker retired as managing director of BGP International in 2025, but his contribution to the industry spans more than 50 years and has had a lasting impact on growers, exporters and international market development for Australian fruit and vegetables.

Beginning his career in the early 1970s with his family’s wholesale business, Barkers, Barker was a pioneer of fresh produce exports from Australia. From the late 1970s onwards, he helped establish some of the country’s earliest citrus export programmes, including the first exports of citrus from Griffith to New Zealand and Hong Kong, followed by expansion into the Middle East, Japan, Singapore, South-East Asia, China, and emerging markets across Asia.

Through BGP International, which he established in 1992, Barker worked extensively with growers across Australia to align product varietals, grading, packing standards, and timing with international market requirements. He played a hands-on role in educating growers about overseas consumer preferences, quarantine requirements, and cultural buying patterns, helping Australian produce compete successfully in highly demanding markets.

Barker has also contributed significantly at industry and government levels, assisting with international market access, consulting with Australian government officials on quarantine and trade matters, and contributing to industry bodies including Citrus Australia, pricing committees for China and the US, and various government advisory organisations. His work has supported the opening and maintenance of export pathways into markets that were, at the time, difficult or entirely undeveloped for Australian fresh produce.

With his recognised expertise, Barker has been a regular participant and speaker at leading international conferences and forums over many years, including Asiafruit Congress in Hong Kong as well as industry events across the Middle East and Japan. These efforts have helped promote the professionalism and reputation of the Australian fresh produce industry globally.

Taking growers to market

Barker told Fruitnet he was delighted to receive the OAM, but, with typical humility, he dedicated the accolade to the fresh produce industry.

“In today’s business and government worlds, it is often tech, big business and mining that get the most recognition while the Aussie farmer and horticulturalist are last to be looked after,” said Barker.

“This award is a recognition of the contribution horticulture makes to export from Australia. I’ve worked hard to get Australian exports going and promote our produce in overseas markets, but the award is more for the industry than just for me.”

Barker said one of his proudest contributions to the industry was taking growers to export markets to help them understand requirements and discover opportunities.

“Throughout my career, I made a habit of taking growers to the marketplace to see the market with their own eyes, whether it was a leek grower coming to Japan or fruit growers coming to Asia Fruit Logistica. My modus operandi was if I was going somewhere, take someone. Not many exporters did that, and it was a great way to expand Australian exports.”

Barker was also an advocate for experimenting and testing products in export markets. “One of my philosophies as an exporter was to look at the market, try something and see if it works,” he said. “We had some failures, like a mandarin promotion in India that fell flat in a week, but you don’t know until you try. I’d say to my export team ‘look at what they [the importer] have got in the cold room and see whether we can do better’.”

Commenting on his retirement, Barker said the thing he missed most was the great friends he met and made internationally over the years. “Whether it was attending a family wedding in Manila or Jakarta, for me it was a great benefit to call so many people good friends.”

Australian Horticulture Trade (AHT), the peak industry body for Australian horticultural exporters and importers, congratulated Barker on his “outstanding achievement”.

“Neil Barker is highly deserving of this award,” said chief executive of AHT, Lesley Shield. “He has been a long-term advocate for our industry. Neil spent a lifetime working on developing and improving markets for Australian products and has been extremely supportive of our industry.”