Quinoa to be Grown AND Processed in Western Australia

A $500,000 grant from Coles has provided the impetus for the first quinoa processing plant to be built in WA.  This is a big step for local food processing in Australia where so much has been written about the loss of food manufacture in Australia.

Australian Grown Superfoods, involving Highbury farmer Ashley Wiese, Dumbleyung farmer Megan Gooding and agronomist Garren Knell, received news it had secured the Coles Nurture Fund grant late last week

Mr Wiese said the grant money was the missing link in moves to get quinoa onto Australian supermarket shelves, although I do not agree necessarily with the statement, as my observation is that there is quinoa already present in reasonable quantities in major supermarkets [including Coles]. 

He said - "The total investment in the plant will be $1.5 million, so this grant will make up a significant portion of this and will help us reduce the risk," he said.  "It has given us confidence that we are doing the right thing and are on the right track.  "We are getting the production, we know the market is there, it has just been the processing part of the equation holding us back.  "The only alternative to process quinoa without a domestic plant was to send it overseas, so we would have had to ship it out of the country to process it and then ship it back.  "With the fall in the Australian dollar that would have been a very expensive exercise. Plus, in conversations we have had with our customers, they want traceability of the product and we were nervous we could lose that if the product had to be shipped overseas."

Mr Wiese said there would still be a cautious approach to increasing production of quinoa.

quinoa growing at altitude in S America

quinoa grain colour varies with different varieties

This year's crop totals 500 hectares and should produce 300 to 400 tonnes.  "We will increase production slowly," he said.  "Initially we will target the domestic market and hope to replace some of the Peruvian conventional product in the market now.  "We are also looking at exporting to Asia, but that will take a few years.  "We are conscious of taking it slow and making sure the demand is there before we increase production.  "Even though the grant came with no strings attached we are talking to Coles and this grant has provided us with a foot in the door with them and conversations are happening which is a great thing for us.  "We are keen to supply Coles and that is where we will start and at this stage we won't look to expand too far ahead of that.  "If we are going to get into the export market we will have to lift supply."

Mr Wiese said there has already been a large amount of planning done on the plant and it could be built and ready for processing as early as December this year.  "Megan's family has built a pilot plant in Narrogin and that has worked really well and gave us the confidence we could build a larger scale plant," he said.  "The plant will be built on my property and the sheds are going up now and most of the machinery is built so it will happen quite quickly."

Coles managing director John Durkan said the project was exactly the type of innovative business that the Coles Nurture Fund had been set up to support  "We chose it to receive one of the first grants because it is innovative and providing a local product that is currently imported into Australia and will be available in WA," Mr Durkan said.

Coles launched Coles Nurture Fund in April, announcing it would provide $50 million in grants and interest free loans over five years to businesses in the food and grocery sector so they could grow and innovate.

Quinoa production is expanding modestly around Australia and expanding into non traditional areas including the tropics and sub tropics, even with interest in the NT and Queensland, with continuing interest in the broad north Australia area, where production may be an irrigated or partially irrigated crop in the dry season, whereas so far most has been produced in temperate areas.  There is a range of varieties available, including those with different grain colours, and some of these seem to have potential for north Australia.

Local market demand is increasing, but one has to wonder if it will be a short lived curiosity, only to be cast aside as fashion changes, or if some detrimental issue arises with the product and will it continue to displace sales of other food products.

There is no doubt that post production aspects of the whole production chain for many agricultural products is a stumbling block to wider use and potential for export.  It is much easier to increase in paddock production than to commit $$ to post growing processing or treatment, yet that is often where the bottleneck is!

Lets hope it progresses well. 

partially sourced from online edition of Qld Country Life 10/915

Large A$3 million Court Imposed Fine for Coles Supermarkets - Misleading Consumers

Coles supermarkets have received a $3 million fine over selling misleading labelled breads.

This is well documented in the media over the past day or so, with articles here : -

http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/coles-guilty-of-false-freshly-baked-claims/2702534.aspx?storypage=0
and here -
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/coles-found-guilty-of-misleading-customers-over-freshly-baked-bread/story-fnkgdftz-1226958879823

There are many more on line.

One must also be suspicious over many of the claims made by supermarkets about other products.  May not be as misleading as this one, which does seem to be quite dodgy, but are they as potentially as dubious as this issue?

The mislabelled bread issue has been highlighted by ex Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, a major protagonist against Coles in this action, with his high profile capable of getting action.

Bread is not the only overseas, mostly European bakery products, in Coles.  Often some of these are shown as "fresh" ie thawed, and ready to use, although most are frozen.

Are we likely to see a backlash by consumers over the disappearance of Australian food items off supermarket shelves, often driven by profit margins of the supermarket giants?

Coles to Back Off Due to Farm Lobby Pressure

Coles retreats at bush boycott

• by:SUE NEALES, Rural reporter
• From:The Australian  June 05, 2013 12:00AM

 

COLES is expected today to deliver farmers their first victory in their battle with the supermarket giants, pulling from sale shopping bags supporting Animals Australia.

Angry beef and fat lamb producers yesterday called for a mass boycott of Coles supermarkets because of their partnership with the animal rights group, saying the retail giant was deeply "anti-farming".

A spokesman for Wesfarmers -- Coles's parent company -- said last night it had taken notice of the "deep and genuine" level of interest in the issue from both sides of the debate.

Wesfarmers is expected to announce this morning it is withdrawing all bags from sale.

The spokesperson would not confirm the move, but said the company had great regard for its roots as a farmer-owned co-operative and wanted to avoid "further polarisation" of its stakeholders.

The National Farmers Federation had called on Coles and Wesfarmers, to reconsider their partnership with the animal rights group and to stop selling the shopping bags.

It is the first time the peak lobby group has so stridently attacked Coles -- which last year sponsored the NFF annual congress in Canberra -- accusing it of endorsing a "radical" organisation that wanted to shut down farms and rural jobs.

Coles and competitor Woolworths have also been at the centre of a growing row with struggling dairy farmers over the damage caused by continued sales of cheap $1-a-litre milk.

Sheep producers who supply Coles with thousands of lambs a year yesterday announced a blackban on sales to the chain. The moves follow outrage within farming circles at the decision to sell the Animals Australia bags at 500 of its stores this month.

Queensland cattleman Stuart Ogg said he was appalled at Coles's misjudgment and would make sure none of his Brahman-cross cattle ended up as prime beef steaks in its stores.  "Coles always seem to be looking for a point of difference or a cheap publicity stunt and don't care who they hurt in the process," the Carnarvon Gorge grazier said. "We have a very solid and sustainable industry; Coles siding with Animals Australia is a slap in the face for industry -- it's like them saying they don't think we are producing our meat properly."

One of NSW's biggest prime-lamb producers, Andrew Freshwater, announced he would be halting the supply of thousands of lambs a year to Coles until it reversed its stance.

Mr Freshwater said five other suppliers -- all the major producers in the eastern states -- were backing his stance, while other farmers intended to stop buying fertiliser and insurance from Wesfarmers. "I've had a gutful; (it's time) to make Coles sit up and take notice," he said.

Coles yesterday began selling more than 15,000 of the bags at checkouts in its metropolitan supermarkets, with 30c from each $1 sale going towards Animals Australia's campaigns.

NFF chief executive Matt Linnegar said Coles could not have it both ways -- it could not claim to be the best friend of farmers and a strong supporter of homegrown produce while supporting Animals Australia and its extremist anti-farming campaigns.

Animals Australia campaign director Lyn White yesterday wrote to supporters calling for them to write, email or tweet Coles affirming their support for the campaign and the anti-factory farming bag sales.

Copyright acknowledged  - The Australian newspaper. Reprinted in its full online version.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/coles-retreats-at-bush-boycott/story-e6frg8zx-1226657343212?utm_source=The%20Australian&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&net_sub_uid=17809288

Probably a good outcome - if true.  But this is but a battle - the war is still on!

Coles Supermarkets now Supports Animals Australia - Forgets Farmers

Supermarket dominance is probably not a good thing.

But when your major marketplace decides to support the opposition, by becoming a supporter for a major group that  advocates against livestock slaughter would you as a grower and producer of livestock continue to sell them produce, that is, your livestock?

This is effectively what Coles [ one of two dominant supermarket chains] has done in Australia this week by selling shopping bags labelled with Animals Australia signage, effectively supporting the pressure group.  Remember this is the group that has been opposed to live cattle export, and supports no livestock use for human consumption and was the prime agency in providing film footage that shut down the live export trade in 2011.

It is being dressed up as Coles supporting "ëthical" treatment and slaughter of stock.  But many see it as Coles outright support of phasing out livestock use.

Some farmers are now boycotting Coles, farmers who have been previously selling stock direct to Coles for sale in their meat section of the supermarket.

Woolworths is very quiet......no doubt hoping that Coles will deliver a signifcant gunshot wound to their own foot.  Many think that Coles have definitely fully put their feet in their mouth.

The material online is amazing on this subject - see http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/agribusiness/general-news/coles-fundraising-plan-bagged/2659322.aspx?storypage=0 

While the article is rational, do not forget to read the comments.  Many of those are not.  About 8-10 pages when I last checked- probably more than almost anything else over the past year or so.

The Australian farm community is up in arms over this issue.  Much of Coles marketing claims relating to meat products over the past several years, since the UK mafia.....sorry management arrived, has been mostly window dressing, or should that be spin, delivered to an ill informed public.

Will they now embrace grass fed livestock, a current marketing push by industry, as there are strong claims that grass fed stock are better flavoured, and could deliver a better return to growers, and would Coles pay more as beef buyers?  That might deliver some small, but real gains in cents per kg of carcass, to producers.


Update - midnight 4 June  It seems that the MD and chairman of Wesfarmers may be getting involved, they were not happy!! - this small bit of info was on the radio news.