While many people are locked down due to COVID-19, some Goulburn Valley industries are booming in spite of it.
The Goulburn Valley is not called the fruit bowl of Australia for fun. Local packing company, Geoffrey Thompson Fruit Packing is working at the height of the picking season and CEO, Peter Thompson said, “This is a busy time for us, we anticipate we will harvest around 90,000 bulk bins this season. This is a huge undertaking to pick, transport, and put into storage all of the seasonal harvest that we conduct in the four months between February and May.
On top of the normal business of dealing with the harvest, the company is also working on new developments as well. “We have what we are calling the Fruitco Project. That is we are relocating our business from Wheeler St to the Ardmona Foods factory in Mooroopna, working through planning and building permits, and hope to place equipment purchase orders this month.
“On another front, we are currently doing the last part of the final upgrade of our apple line, electronic grading equipment. We are the first site in the (apple packing) world to run commercially Ultra View Blemish Detection equipment. It is state-of-the-art equipment for electronic blemish sorting.” said Peter.
“We are preparing to plant several new orchard blocks this winter with the new apple variety Dazzle. Dazzle has been well received in Asian markets and we expect to export this variety Asia wide beginning in 2023.”.
As other industry and political leaders have noted, the Asian market is reaching out for clean grown produce that is the hallmark of the Goulburn Valley fruit industry and is likely to play a major economic impact as the nation makes adjustments as we move forward. The Adviser reported in a recent interview with local Member for Nicholls, Damian Drum said, “It is too early to talk about where we are in six months but it will cause a lot of thinking about how the world operates.”
Speaking about Shepparton more generally, Peter said, “Working in collaboration with other growers, we are also looking to support a growers area in the new Shepparton Art Museum to underscore the connection between the horticultural industry and the Goulburn Valley community – similar to KidsTown but with the Arts.”
The fruit industry certainly has a definite place as the lead industry of the Goulburn Valley and through it, the region will continue to prosper for many years to come.
