AU: Garlic growers get a whiff of healthy sales online

Australian garlic is making a comeback. Since finding an unlikely marketplace online, a growing group of Australians is choosing to grow the labour-intensive yet ''rewarding'' crop. ''[Australian garlic] is not dry, it's not bleached with chlorine, it hasn't been fumigated … and it's juicy,'' said Andrew Hearne from Hoisdale farm near Wauchope, who sold two tonnes of garlic last year and expects to double that this year. ''I get people that actually peel it and it looks so good they eat it.'' The Australian garlic industry was nearly destroyed a decade ago by a wave of cheap imports, mostly from China. In the years that followed, up to 90 per cent of the garlic consumed in Australia was grown overseas. Patrice Newell, a grower in the Upper Hunter region, estimates the production of garlic has quadrupled in the past five years.

She supplies bulbs to people starting out as growers and believes more people now ''understand the difference between good and bad garlic''. ''Anyone can grow my garlic and I encourage them to,'' she said. Leon Trembath has been a grower for 20 years and is president of the Australian Garlic Industry Association. Membership of the association was growing, albeit modestly, he said, and he had noticed that consumers had become more discerning, especially when it comes to Australian and imported garlic. Mr Hearne's garlic will feature in dishes at Rockpool restaurant in Sydney. ''It's great to be able to find an organic alternative in Australia,'' the restaurant's owner and executive chef, Neil Perry, said.

In his search for ingredients, it is not unusual for Perry to receive produce in the mail. He said the availability of produce online was a ''great way for small producers who care about what they sell to continue to stay in business''. ''It's perfect,'' said Mr Hearne, who sells 90 per cent of his garlic online. Not just because when dried, garlic has a long shelf-life and is easy to post, but also because ''customers have a connection to our farm, they can follow us online … and meet the people who grow their food''. More than 300 varieties of garlic are grown in Australia, so it's a matter of choice, Mr Trembath said. ''[Online shopping] takes people back to that volume of choice.''

Source: newcastlestar.com.au