By Casey Neill
AUSTRALIAN Fresh Leaf Herbs has capped off a big year with two big awards.
The Devon Meadows and Clyde-based farm was named 2016 Casey Cardinia Business of the Year at Cardinia Cultural Centre in Pakenham on Friday 16 September.
Co-founder Jan Vydra also took home the Agriculture and Food Award from the awards night.
In March he unveiled a new greenhouse, complete with cloud technology, designed to increase yields by 75 per cent.
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.
Mr Vydra said the company started out producing 2000 bunches of herbs each week.
Eight years later it produces 150,000 bunches, pots and punnets of 60 different varieties of herbs, edible flowers and Australian natives.
Mr Vydra credited a “persistence to challenge the norm and look for a better way to do things”.
“In 2008, 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,” he said.
“We have bold plans.
“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.”
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.
Mr Vydra started the business with William Pham in Clyde in 2008.
“We tried growing basil outdoors and we did relatively OK at it, but we found that there was some inconsistency in controlling the crop,” he said.
“We started growing more and more hydroponic produce which gave us pretty close to year-round production.”
Mr Pham had two greenhouses when he met Mr Vydra.
“William actually came from a banking background, but his father used to grow hydroponic tomatoes in Adelaide,” Mr Vydra said.
“He’d just had enough of the corporate lifestyle.
“I was running Yarra Valley Farms, which was a distributor of fruit and vegetables.
“I started to get a lot of complaints about fresh herbs.
“Slowly, I learnt that herbs were really important to chefs because all the products really differentiate their plates and give their customers an experience.”
It was at the time that MasterChef was capturing viewers’ imaginations.
“I had a hospitality focus to start with, but I switched to retail very quickly because those food competition programs just took off,” he said.
“There’s really been a revolution in the cooking culture in Australia.”
Mr Vydra wants exports to become the biggest part of the Fresh Leaf business.
“We’ve got 23 million people in Australia,” he said.
“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 hopes the new greenhouse will help Fresh Leaf to play its part, and said vertical farming was the next frontier.
“I think we’ve got a pretty big journey in front of us,” he said.
The other 2016 Casey Cardinia Business Award winners:
Business and Professional Services – Successful Endeavours
Environmental Sustainability – Beaconsfield Dental
Health, Education and Well-being – Hero Headquarters
Home-based Business – Sam Michelle – Paintings
Hospitality – O.MY Restaurant
Manufacturing – Sterling Pumps
New Business – Casey Childcare Cardinia
Retail – iBare Giftware
Social Enterprise – Waverley Industries
Tourism – Safir Tours
Trades and Construction – POWERPLANT Project Services
People’s Choice – Enhance Yoga
