Qualipac is a 4th generation Australian owned farming enterprise that specialises in growing, packing and supplying quality produce to the domestic and international market. The main products are broccoli, baby broccoli, pumpkins (Kent, Butternut & Jarrahdale) and onions (Brown, Red & White). Qualipac uses over 1,000 hectares of quality land to grow vegetablesKees Versteeg, Sales, Marketing and Business development manager, says that Qualipac produces about 80 – 120 tonne of broccoli per week. "Our main broccoli season runs from April through to Oct/Nov and weather permitting can run all the way till Dec/Jan, We are also continuously trialling summer varieties in order to work towards year-round supply. In the last few days we’ve seen domestic market prices climbing significantly due to cold weather conditions in broccoli growing regions, but this could all change as soon as the weather conditions turn around."
He explains that in Australia a high percentage of produce is sold on the open market as opposed to contracts. "This causes a real yo-yo effect and places a lot of risks that flows back to the grower which in turn are affecting long-term sustainable profits for the grower. We are working very hard in forming more long term partnerships with customers and taking on a more direct customer approach, with the current system the growers are constantly taking risks."
Qualipac supplies domestic supermarkets, wholesalers and are venturing into the export markets.
"We export to countries such as Singapore and are also looking at opportunities to export our high quality fresh produce to Hong Kong, Japan and even China will be on our radar. A country with a population expected to reach 1.462 billion people by 2030, having 21 per cent of the world’s population but with only 8.5 per cent of the world’s arable land as well as the significant increase of China’s annual per capita income since 2000. With Australia widely acknowledged as a 'clean and green' producer of vegetables, I have no doubt that even we at Qualipac can make a contribution to exporting our high quality fresh produce to the Asia-Pacific region.”
Qualipac is split into three parts:
Qualipac Farms - Growing
Qualipac Produce - Packing
Qualipac Pty Ltd. – Sales, Marketing and Business Development
The company has just launched a new website, Kees explained that the original one was in need of an upgrade, "It is now all up to date with more in-depth details about our business and product lines we grow and supply. We even added a blog to our website that allows new content to be added on a regular basis and we welcome any feed-back that can contribute to keeping our website fresh.”
For more information:
Kees Versteeg
Qualipac
Tel: 0061 7 5466 5441
Email: kees@qualipac.com.au
www.qualipac.com.au