Thanks to decades of work by persistent farmers, Australian consumers can now get locally grown garlic all year round. Australian Garlic Producers chief executive Nick Diamantopolous began growing garlic in the 1990s, a time when most Australians were eating imported bulbs, predominantly from China. He undertook the Herculean task of converting a market reliant on cheap imports to one that valued Australian garlic.
Presently, China produces 75 per cent of the world's garlic. From competing with cheap labour overseas, to finding garlic seed that was virus-free, and matching the right varieties with the right conditions, growers had their work cut out for them.
As demand for higher-quality garlic grew, supermarkets replaced Chinese imports with product from Spain, Mexico and Argentina. Garlic has a storage life of about six months. Utilising that trait and combining it the different growing conditions available in Australia at any given time proved to be the key to consistent supply.
Source: abc.net.au