"The returns this year have been good because a lot of southern onion producers had trouble with the warmer than normal weather conditions at the start of their season last year. As a result the percentage of onions good enough to put into cold storage was a lot less than their previous season, which opened up the demand for Queensland's onions from October onwards," explained Kees Versteeg from Qualipac. "In my six years with Qualipac this is only the second time I have seen a sustainable return for the growers."
Australian onions
Queensland onion growers, historically, had a larger supply window, starting as early as August each year. But due to the increased scale of production by southern states, combined with improved onion varieties and improved storage technologies, growers here have seen their supply window being shortened from 5-6 months to 3-4 months to prevent an overlap in available supply. This has had a detrimental effect on the farm gate prices for Queensland onion growers.
The company is now preparing to plant the new season broccoli, but according to Kees they are still a bit short of water. "Last year it was worse; we had a lot of empty dams and not enough water to successfully pull our plantings through to harvesting stage. We are, however planting as per program and hoping that we have enough water to pull the crop through to harvest this year."
Australian broccoli on sale at Japanese supermarket
Queensland is a subtropical state and the rainy times are usually in January, February and March. In years gone by the area has seen big floods in these months, but in the last couple of years there has been very little rainfall and the dams are not nearly full.
"We are just going ahead as normal at Qualipac," said Kees. "Things are looking positive and the formation of some alliances with other vegetable growers in the region might give us the insurance and support needed to meet the growing demand."
On the Asian markets, Singapore is very big for Qualipac and two years ago they reopened the Japanese market for Australian broccoli.
Australian Broccoli mousse with smoked Pacific octopus
"Broccoli is not a particularly a niche or high-end product, but in Australia we have to realise that we won’t be able to compete with lower production cost countries such as the USA or Mexico. It’s about finding the right customers who understand that we can't do it as cheap as the others and being willing to change our product specifications to suit the customer and at the same time differentiate ourselves from these other producers," said Kees.
"We have also started to supply courgettes to Japan and are working very hard to get other growers aligned with us to cooperatively better serve the growing Asian appetite for good quality fresh Australian vegetables."
Kees Versteeg with Hiroyuki Sakai, Iron Chef French and owner of restaurant La Rochelle, Tokyo, Japan, promoting Australian Broccoli
Australia has the reputation of being 'Green and Clean' but so do many other countries. This is not enough any more. Kees thinks the message that will become more important over the next five to ten years is “Fairness”. It will be about achieving better trading conditions, promoting sustainable farming, improved social and environmental standards, compliance with domestic and international labour laws and the development of more direct trade relationships, so that more of the price of the item goes directly to the producer.
For more information:
Kees Versteeg
Qualipac
Tel: +61 7 5466 5441
Email: kees@qualipac.com.au
www.qualipac.com.au
Australian onions
Queensland onion growers, historically, had a larger supply window, starting as early as August each year. But due to the increased scale of production by southern states, combined with improved onion varieties and improved storage technologies, growers here have seen their supply window being shortened from 5-6 months to 3-4 months to prevent an overlap in available supply. This has had a detrimental effect on the farm gate prices for Queensland onion growers.
The company is now preparing to plant the new season broccoli, but according to Kees they are still a bit short of water. "Last year it was worse; we had a lot of empty dams and not enough water to successfully pull our plantings through to harvesting stage. We are, however planting as per program and hoping that we have enough water to pull the crop through to harvest this year."
Australian broccoli on sale at Japanese supermarket
Queensland is a subtropical state and the rainy times are usually in January, February and March. In years gone by the area has seen big floods in these months, but in the last couple of years there has been very little rainfall and the dams are not nearly full.
"We are just going ahead as normal at Qualipac," said Kees. "Things are looking positive and the formation of some alliances with other vegetable growers in the region might give us the insurance and support needed to meet the growing demand."
On the Asian markets, Singapore is very big for Qualipac and two years ago they reopened the Japanese market for Australian broccoli.
Australian Broccoli mousse with smoked Pacific octopus
"Broccoli is not a particularly a niche or high-end product, but in Australia we have to realise that we won’t be able to compete with lower production cost countries such as the USA or Mexico. It’s about finding the right customers who understand that we can't do it as cheap as the others and being willing to change our product specifications to suit the customer and at the same time differentiate ourselves from these other producers," said Kees.
"We have also started to supply courgettes to Japan and are working very hard to get other growers aligned with us to cooperatively better serve the growing Asian appetite for good quality fresh Australian vegetables."
Kees Versteeg with Hiroyuki Sakai, Iron Chef French and owner of restaurant La Rochelle, Tokyo, Japan, promoting Australian Broccoli
Australia has the reputation of being 'Green and Clean' but so do many other countries. This is not enough any more. Kees thinks the message that will become more important over the next five to ten years is “Fairness”. It will be about achieving better trading conditions, promoting sustainable farming, improved social and environmental standards, compliance with domestic and international labour laws and the development of more direct trade relationships, so that more of the price of the item goes directly to the producer.
For more information:
Kees Versteeg
Qualipac
Tel: +61 7 5466 5441
Email: kees@qualipac.com.au
www.qualipac.com.au