AU berry growers take on cheaper imports
"We'd been toying with the idea of frozen berries for many years ... when the hep A scare came out it became at the forefront of peoples minds and all of a sudden there was the opportunity," grower Matt Gallace said.
The Gallace family started investing in new state of the art freezing machinery two years ago when 25 people contracted the hepatitis A virus after eating Nanna's frozen fruit, which was grown and packed overseas.
"The thing with overseas grown fruit is there is no traceability no accountability ... there's different practices and standards all around the world," Ruth Gallace said.
"The way the labelling laws are in Australia you can't be confident about the origin of what you're buying."
That means fruit could be grown in one country and packed in another. The strawberries at the Gallace's farms are all handpicked and graded, before being washed and individually snap frozen. It is the washing that this family believes sets its berries apart from the overseas-processed fruit.
"They come in from the field as whole fruit, when we hull them they are still whole fruit, they come through the washer, it goes through the blast freezer down to -60C ... there's not a lot of time in between picking and blast freezing and it ensures that you get a product that is uncompromised," Mr Gallace said.
The family has negotiated a trial with one of the big supermarkets to supply their frozen berries to 20 stores across Victoria. The big question is whether will customers pay more for locally grown, locally processed frozen berries?
"I think that people are more informed and concerned about the origins of their food these days for a whole host of reasons, food safety being one," Ms Gallace said.
"There's so many reasons to buy Australian and we have found that we have a really loyal customer base that has either gone off frozen fruit completely and they've returned to the category or, of course, have switched over."
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