AU: Australian tomato consumption soars
The d'Vine Ripe Tomato Farm covers 27ha and will produce 15,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year.
11 varieties of tomato will be grown, highlighting the rapid growth of the small gourmet tomato range in recent years.
The ever-growing range of tomato varieties combined with increased recognition about the perceived health benefits of tomatoes has coincided with a sharp divergence in tomato prices.
Consumers were paying up to $25kg for the finest range of new and exotic gourmet tomato varieties at the Adelaide Central Market this week and as little as just $1kg for the field-grown tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes generally sold for $15kg to $20kg, while the paddock-grown tomatoes sold for $1kg to $5kg and up to $10kg for truss tomatoes.
Catering for the changing market demand, the d'Vine Ripe glasshouse is a joint-venture between leading fresh produce marketing company Perfection Fresh Australia and Melbourne investment company, the Victor Smorgon Group.
Perfection Fresh chief executive Michael Simonetta said the value of production from d'Vine Ripe would rise from $30 million a year to about $50 million annually with the opening of stage three.
He says tomato consumption is definitely up over the last decade, with consumers looking more and more towards the smaller varieties, in the belief that they are sweeter in taste.
Source: heraldsun.com.au