By CASEY NEILL
AUSTRALIAN Fresh Leaf is turning to agri-tech for a slice of the Asian revolution.
The Clyde-based herb producer unveiled a new greenhouse at its Devon Meadows site in March, designed to deliver a 75 per cent increase in yields, with the help of Coles.
Television screens guide employees on exactly when and what herbs to plant, pick and pack.
The herbs are growing on Dutch-designed rolling benches that can be pushed together to increase planting space, and rolled into an adjoining shed so employees can harvest the herbs at the one location.
They use 85 per cent of available space, compared to grow-beds which only use 60 per cent.
City of Casey mayor Sam Aziz said the project was a prime example of the innovation that the Casey Cardinia Region actively encouraged.
He said the evolution of agri-tech would bring IT professionals, programmers and scientists onto farms.
“This new era of farming welcomes forward-thinking businesses,” he said.
Jan Vydra and William Pham founded Australian Fresh Leaf in 2008 and started out producing 2000 bunches of herbs each week.
“We ducked out of our corporate jobs and took a bit of a risk, and our vision was to be the leader in the horticulture industry, to grow beautiful herbs and to evolve farming practices by using sustainable practices and innovative practices,” Mr Vydra said.
Today it produces 150,000 bunches, pots and punnets of 60 different varieties of herbs, edible flowers and Australian natives.
Mr Pham had two greenhouses at Clyde when Mr Vydra brought to the table his experience running fruit and vegetable distributor Yarra Valley Farms.
“I started to get a lot of complaints about fresh herbs,” Mr Vydra said.
“Herbs were really important to chefs because all the products really differentiate their plates and give their customers an experience.
“I had a hospitality focus to start with but I switched to retail very quickly because those food competition programs just took off.”
Mr Vydra said Australian Fresh Leaf’s success was thanks to a “persistence to challenge the norm and look for a better way to do things”.
“We have bold plans,” he said.
“We want to expand our operations over the next 12 to 18 months to open a new 30,000 square metre new facility, hopefully in the City of Casey, and expand into New South Wales over the next three to five years.”
He’s adding an Aboriginal native food walk, inviting chefs to trial new varieties on-site in a shipping container kitchen and introducing a Salad Door – his take on a wine tasting space.
“We want export to be the biggest part of our business,” Mr Vydra said.
“We’re focusing on establishing those relationships with major retailers and also chefs around Australia, but we’ve got 23 million people in Australia.
“Realistically we’re touching 70 per cent of the nation, which is 16 or 17 million people.
“Going into Asia, we suddenly have half a billion people that we can access, that are changing their habits and becoming more Westernised and looking for Western products.”
Mr Vydra was Australia’s 2011 Young Farmer of the Year and last year received a Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship and $30,000 from the William Buckland Foundation to study various innovative farming techniques.
Coles last September awarded Australian Fresh Leaf its Rising Star Award and in November gave the company a $430,000 interest-free loan for its new greenhouse.
