Asparagus is the pick for these spear guns
Two farming families have spent nearly 30 years creating a successful asparagus business, but their biggest challenge lies ahead.
ALEX Motta and Con Raffa were raised in the rich asparagus fields of West Gippsland.
As children of Italian immigrants from Sicily, they spent their childhood helping their parents to carefully collect the green spears each harvest.
Today their families run Momack Produce — Australia’s biggest fully vertically-integrated grower, packer and exporter of asparagus.
The Mottas and Raffas formed the successful partnership in the early 1990s and haven’t looked back since.
“Momack was established to create a decent presence in the marketplace,” Alex said.
“We have the same dedication to our farms; we knew we could work together.”
MOMACK PRODUCE
KOO WEE RUP
FOUNDED in 1991 by the Raffa and Motta families
GROWS, packs and exports asparagus
SUPPLIES 50 per cent of product to export markets and 50pc to domestic, including major supermarket chains, wholesale and retail
The operation has expanded exponentially from 80ha in 1991 to 647.5ha this year.
The company’s total annual production equates to more than 5000 tonnes.
During the harvest season, Momack recruits a workforce of 500 and dispatches asparagus daily by cool chain airfreight to international airports.
Up to 50 per cent of their produce is sold on the domestic market, while the other half goes predominantly to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and China.
Export once accounted for 80 per cent of their customer base, but more Australians are now consuming asparagus, so the risk is spread evenly.
Alex said when he looked at how far the business had come since its inception, he felt a sense of satisfaction.
“We are really proud of what our families have created together,” he said.
GROUND UP
PRECAUTIONS are taken from the very beginning of the growing process, with seed imported from California at a cost of $2000-$3000 per kilogram.
If looked after correctly, crops can last for up to a decade. The oldest at Momack is 18 years old.
There’s one main type of asparagus grown in Australia — UC157 — a variety developed by the University of California in the early 1980s.
Alex, who is also the president of the Australian Asparagus Council, said no other varieties had superseded UC157, because we need something that transports well for export.”
The plants are not harvested fully until their third spring.
“From seed to maximum production, it’s probably a five to six-year process,” Alex said.
“But if you look after them when they are young, you are going to get more out of them in the longer run.”
Fertiliser — $500-$800 a tonne — and herbicide are critical at this stage, while weed control is carried out chemically or by hand.
RIPE FOR PICKING
HARVEST runs from September through to December. The aim is for yields of 10 tonnes a hectare.
“A lot goes into harvesting the crop properly,” Alex said. “It’s a tricky job for cutters … there’s an art to it.”
Con agreed. He said the stalks had to be cut at 230mm to meet product specifications. “You can’t cut everything either, because you’ll kill the crop,” he said.
The majority of labour — from harvesting to packing — must be completed by hand.
Leading up to the busy season, the Raffas and Mottas recruit workers, including 200 from Vanuatu under the Pacific Island Seasonal Worker Program. “It’s a huge job getting them here — there’s a lot of red tape,” Alex said.
“But we are so grateful to have that avenue, because it’s so difficult to get Australian workers on the farms.”
While 250 workers are out in the fields (often cutting through the night for optimum harvest), another 250 work in Momack’s three packing sheds.
Automated processing lines help to calculate green and white percentages and measure the stalks’ diameter, but everything else is completed manually in an effort to get the crop to market within 24 hours of harvest.
ROCKY ROAD AHEAD
THIS coming harvest, recent changes to the Horticulture Award (including a 150 per cent overtime loading for casual employees) are set to hit Momack’s bottom line.
Their workforce is entirely casual and Alex said they would have to seriously look at how viable their business will be.
“Australia has a very good reputation, but we are directly competing with countries like Mexico now, where there’s a huge difference in wage prices,” he said. “The challenge now is how we are going to remain competitive on the world stage.”
Alex said penalty changes had already driven some local asparagus growers off the land.
“There’s no incentive to stay in industry,” he said.
“It’s so difficult to get workers and then the awards might mean our business will become unviable.”
They will now focus on how to create efficiencies within the business to offset wage increases.
Both agree this is their biggest challenge to date.
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