Global Food Forum: LaManna’s Anthony Di Pietro says horticulture future “enormous” labour squeeze real

The LaManna Premier Group boss says the horticulture sector has coped well with the challenge of operating during COVID-19, but finding workers in the regions is difficult

Anthony Di Pietro, chief executive officer La Manna Premier Food

The head of one of Australia’s biggest fruit and vegetable operations has called on governments to help drive an increase in food exports and assist with labour issues in regional areas as working visa numbers fall.

Anthony Di Pietro, the chief executive of the LaManna Premier Group, told The Australian’s Global Food Forum on Wednesday that his industry has coped extremely well with COVID but faced challenges in attracting local works to pick produce with the amount of overseas workers falling dramatically.

Mr Di Pietro told the forum that his industry has an “enormous future” but needed “patient investment and significant capital” to help it realise its potential.

“The markets internationally are exciting but they are also critical for our growth. We can’t just have our own production being sold domestically – it won’t work. That’s got to be a concerted effort by government in international relations to assist business and then of course business needs to ensure it brings the right capital.

2020 Global Food Forum Logo 4:30

“I think the future is exciting, I think the industry brings an enormous amount of benefits and massive amounts of jobs. It supports regional Australia in a big way.

“If we’re talking about immigration and jobs for the future we need people to move into some of our regional centres and build those as cities as centres of the future and we can really become a big part of horticulture in the Asian region.”

LGP packs over 1m cartons of bananas per year and distributes its produce, including tomatoes, stone and citrus fruit around the country.

The group has made large capital expenditure investment in most states and territories in recent years, including a 25h masterplan at its Lancaster Farm in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley that will unfold over several years and already features Australia’s first retractable roof, hydroponic gourmet farm where tomatoes are grown all year round.

Mr Di Pietro said LPG had so far successfully dealt with COVID-19 issues, and is yet to have any of its staff test positive across 18 sites around Australia, including three in Melbourne “hot spots” where infection numbers have been relatively high in the community.

“Because it is such a fast-moving industry we were able to adapt quickly with immediate infection control measures. Our critical response plans were up very early in the piece, we segregated the workforce and [put on] multiple shifts. We were able to do that quickly and thankfully we did across all of our sites.

John Stensholt and Anthony Di Pietro

“Managing COVID has been difficult and challenging but I think companies in this industry have done it well. Going forward we are going to have to deal with this for some time to come, and we will adapt to that.”

The other big challenge, Mr Di Pietro, said has been getting workers to the regions during a time when working holiday visa holders from overseas have dropped from about 140,000 in March to 70,000 now, and declining further.

“So that is a significant impact. We work very hard at bringing locals in our labour force. What we need to do is improve the conversion between application to starters and then stayers. Our organisation sees that it does drop off. A lot of applications, very few starts and then very few that stay on. It is a difficult industry, it does take work.

“You’ve seen strawberry growers in Queensland bring in younger people this season but they get out in the field, it is hot, and it is difficult for them to stay,

“We’ve got to find ways for that transition while our visa market is dropping. It is a great challenge that we have right now.”

Mr Di Pietro oversees a family-owned business with a history in horticulture over three generations. His father’s family started farming on the banks of the Murray River at Mildura and then his father and mother’s families were in the wholesale fruit and vegetable industry in Melbourne.

By the time Di Pietro took over the family business more than 15 years ago, the then Premier Fruits Group made several acquisitions further up the supply chain to transform the company into one operating in farming, wholesaling and distribution across the country.

“It was really critical for us to have supply across the whole supply chain. and to ensure year-round supply across the key categories,” Mr Di Pietro said. “It was to make sure to give our customers certainty of supply over a 12 month period.”

Premier merged with the LaManna Group to form a $500m Australian fruit and vegetable giant in 2016. The deal brought together LaManna, the country’s biggest banana producer and seller, with Premier that has the combined entity positioned across the entire horticultural supply chain.

Mr Di Pietro said LPG has invested significantly in the past four years to keep growing, with a strong focus on new and environmentally-friendly technology.

“Bananas are key to the business now, it accounts for 30% of our business, and then we have our heavy produce like pumpkin and melon and our citrus categories. Those are the keys that have underpinned the merger.

“We have set up new superchilled air-handling units, the latest technology in ripening and energy efficiency systems. It is exciting when you’re investing in new technologies that are safe and energy efficient and the outcomes are right for the product.

ENDS