Cricket Australia boss Wally Edwards on good wicket with truffles

CRICKET Australia chairman Wally Edwards is hoping to turn his hobby of growing truffles into a business.

Cricket boss on good wicket with truffles

AFTER Australia beat Sri Lanka at the third Test in Sydney yesterday, Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards returned to Perth to check on his truffle and irrigation business before heading off to China later this week to meet his suppliers.

The former Test cricketer -- who took over as chairman of Cricket Australia in October -- and his wife Kerry run their own irrigation supply business, Holman Engineering, and are building up their truffle company, Oak Valley, in the south of Western Australia.

Like most Australian cricketers in the days when it was an amateur sport, Edwards, a left-handed batsman who played three Test matches in 1974 and 1975, had to juggle his love for the game with a career.

Now he is juggling his time as chairman of Cricket Australia with his truffle farm in Manjimup, between the Margaret River and Albany, hoping to turn his hobby into a business.

His interest in truffles came through his passion for cricket.

"I was the coach of our kids' team in Perth and one of the fathers worked as a scientist with the CSIRO with a speciality in fungi," he said in an interview with The Australian yesterday.

The scientist, Nick Malajczuk, argued that the mild Mediterranean climate south of Perth was the best in Australia for growing truffles.

"He used to keep talking about truffles at our barbecues and finally a few of the parents put some money together and decided to have a go at growing truffles," Edwards says.

Edwards, Malajczuk and others founded The Wine and Truffle Company in Manjimup in 1997, planting its first crop in 1998, with Edwards running the business.

As chairman of Cricket Australia, Edwards has spent the past few days at the Sydney Cricket Ground, mixing with the country's top cricketers, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Governor-General Quentin Bryce, Nine chief David Gyngell and Foxtel chief Richard Freudenstein.

But truffle farming, which involves injecting oak and hazelnut trees with fungi, is a much less glamorous business.

It takes years for the temperamental fungi to grow and it was not until 2003 that Wine and Truffle produced its first truffle. "It was the size of a cricket ball," Edwards says,

In 2005, Wine and Truffle produced its first 1kg truffle.

As managing director, Edwards built up the business, now the largest producer of the black Perigord truffles in the southern hemisphere, with exports to Europe and Asia.

He stepped down from the job in 2009 to devote more time to Cricket Australia as a board member and to a new business at a nearby farm, Oak Valley.

It was set up in 2006 to increase truffle production to more viable levels.

Wine and Truffle has planted about 13,000 trees and Edwards has planted 37,000 trees at Oak Valley.

"It is very early days," he says of Oak Valley. "Last year we only harvested around 40kg." It is small compared to the more than 2 tonnes produced by Wine and Truffle each year but, over the long term, he expects it to be able to produce a lot more truffles and become a more powerful market player.

"It is not a great investment on a short-term basis; it is a long-term investment," he says.

Edwards says truffles usually retail for $2000 a kilogram.

"Depending on quality, they sell for $1800 to $3000 a kilo. Chefs will pay a lot more for a good-quality truffle than a poor-quality truffle," he says.

Part of the problem is educating the international market, particularly Japan, that truffles can be available in the northern summer as well from Australia.

"People are still expecting to get French black truffles in the northern winter," Edwards says.

"But we have to develop a market that is countercyclical."

Edwards believes that the Australian market also needs to become more educated about truffles.

"There is a lack of knowledge on how to use them, which needs to be addressed," he says.

"We produce a cookbook but a lot of chefs don't know how to handle them properly.

"If you want a real truffle experience pick a well-known French chef."

Edwards comes from an entrepreneurial family.

He was born in Muchea, a small town 60km north of Perth, where his parents owned the general store, the post office and the local fuel depot.

He trained as a civil engineer at the University of Western Australia where he played cricket with fellow students Rod Eddington and Mike Fitzpatrick, now both businessmen in Melbourne.

He worked in the federal department of construction in Perth as he built up his career as a cricketer, playing 25 first-class matches for Western Australia and three Tests for Australia in the 70s.

In 1991, he and his wife founded Holman Industries, which specialises in making irrigation products for households and landscape gardens.

Holman Engineering turns over $25m a year and employs 45 people, with offices in Perth and Melbourne. It manufactures most of its equipment in China.

Edwards will visit one of his suppliers in China this week on the way to India in his role as chairman of Cricket Australia.

Edwards says his interest in the truffles business complements his responsibilities as chairman of Cricket Australia.

"It works well for me in terms of my lifestyle," he says. "I am chairman of Cricket Australia for another three years. "By that time truffles will start to become a more serious part of my life.

"I see truffles taking over from cricket."