Rupanyup’s Matthews family strikes lentil-supply deal with Coles

GROW local, buy local and promote local.

Jenny Moore in a Coles store with Coles branded le puy lentils supplied by her brother David Matthews' farm near Rupanyup.

GROW local, buy local and promote local.

That’s the message from Jenny Moore, who has struck a deal to supply Coles with French lentils grown in her hometown of Rupanyup in Victoria’s Wimmera.

Ms Moore is doing her part in putting Rupanyup “back on the map” as a major supplier of pulse crops.

And she encourages farmers in other struggling towns around the state to find ways to get their products on supermarket shelves and, in the process, promote their town.

“Rupanyup is the start of the food chain,” she said.

“It shouldn’t be struggling like it is when it is the start of the food chain.”

Ms Moore has joined Rup­anyup’s International Year of the Pulse committee, set up to celebrate the world event in 2016.

Her brother, David Matthews, and his wife Samantha have a long-time involvement in the grain industry, having established the specialist pulse trading and processing company, Wimmera Grain, at Rupanyup in the early 1990s.

Wimmera Grain had three arms: a pulse trading division, a seed commercialisation business and a small retail and packaging enterprise called Wimmera Grain Store.

Three years ago, the Matthews sold Wimmera Grain to Australian Grain Export Pty Ltd but kept Wimmera Grain Store, which is now run by Moore.

One of Wimmera Grain Store’s key assets was the le puy lentil variety sourced from France under licence from the French Department of Agriculture. The speckled, green lentils are a high value pulse that keep their structure when cooked.

Ms Moore had been working for a Melbourne packing business, Annex Foods. And through Annex Foods, she contacted Coles about supplying the le puy lentils as Coles Brand green lentils.

The first 400 gram packs of green lentils were placed on Coles supermarkets’ shelves last month.

The Matthews family grow the green lentils at Rup­anyup but also grow them in Tasmania through an agreement with Botanical Resources to spread the growing risk. That move paid off this year, with drought reducing the yield from 100ha of plantings at Rupanyup to just six tonnes, while 50 tonnes were harvested in Tasmania.