Australia’s largest solar powered greenhouse project has finally begun construction at Fullerton Cove, 40 minutes outside Newcastle in the NSW Hunter Valley, after a five-year approval and planning process. The project, to grow 16 hectares of cucumbers, tomatoes and capsicums year round, is the brainchild of Dutch agricultural engineer Cor Disselkoen.
The greenhouse is finally being built with government support from NSW DPI Minister Niall Blair, and is expected to boost the $15 billion primary industries sector, but it didn’t come easily. “People have speculated whether Cor is in the best place to do it. You can be dead lucky in this industry and grow a good crop in a dry year, or you can be dead unlucky and grow a good crop that enters a flooded market,” says Mark Millis, a Director with Flavorite, the company that supplied plants and is involved in marketing the produce. “I guess now we’re about to find out. Tomatoes are fairly well proven now, but that’s taken fifteen years. When we first started growing Lebanese cucumbers this way it took five years for people to realize that they were better, so it’s not an overnight thing.”
Success down to quality, long term outlook
Millis is confident Disselkoen will be successful, and he attributes at least part of the success to his different point of view to Australian growers, who seem to jump around when prices become volatile. “I’m really confident Cor will be able to do it. A lot of Australian growers are more ‘in and out’ and don’t always pick if they don’t feel the price is worth it. It’s really about a long term strategy, and growing quality produce year round,” he told Fresh Plaza. That quality will satisfy Australian supermarket buyers, who Millis says have very strict standards, but provide growers and marketers a better return for their efforts.
The price of cucumbers in Australia will still be impacted by outdoor grown produce too, according to Millis, and greenhouse growers must be vigilant and take precautions against viruses, including the Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus (CCGMMV), which has affected cucumber crops in the Northern Territory and may have made its way into Queensland. Many will also be watching to see how well Disselkown’s produce sells and could be ready to switch over if it is successful, according to him. “It will be ground breaking spending the dollars to build the right product. You don’t see that in Australia. Unless incumbents like us (Flavorite), Smorgon, Sundrop and Costa are building there’s generally not much happening.”
The cucumbers are to be grown in an environmentally friendly way, shunning the use of coal-powered electricity, and using the roof to catch rain water, which adds to the appeal.
It is a possibility that the produce may eventually enter the export market, though many overseas markets with potential are not yet sophisticated enough to take on large quantities, Millis says.
For more information:
Mark Millis
Flavorite Marketing
Phone: +61 (3) 8372 5610
E-mail: sales@flavorite.com.au
Website: www.flavorite.com.au