Oz Fresh food boy to king

JOE Pignataro had some berry big ideas as a 17-year-old, writes ALEX SAMPSON

Oz Fresh Strawberries

JOE Pignataro was only 17 when he started his own wholesaling business at the Melbourne Wholesale Market.

He had left school a year earlier to work with his father and uncle at the markets before creating Oz Fresh, and selling for some of the biggest producers in the country.

He later joined forces with his father, Rocco, and brother, Mick, to position the business in the hope of exclusively supplying Coles.

The brothers took over the reins a few years ago when Rocco passed away.

Mick is Oz Fresh's production director and Joe the chief executive.

The brothers own 202ha of land that stretches across Seville East, Woori Yallock and Yellingbo, which they bought and began developing in 1999.

Rocco began farming at Wandin North in 1969, but the property has since been subdivided into 71 housing blocks.

"Now we're growing houses instead of strawberries," Joe said. "We've moved to this area to expand and move forward as a business."

Joe's uncle still works at the Melbourne Wholesale Market.

The family has been supplying Coles for about 40 years.

Nearly all produce is sold to Coles, with some fruit sold to select green grocers through the market.

"Mick's son, Rocco, 19, is now working side-by-side with one of our farm managers," Joe said.

"My other nephew, Tony, 16, can't wait to get home from school to work on the farm as well. We just have to make sure he's done his homework first.

"He has another son, Joe, who is nine, and isn't involved yet."

Joe's own children Rocco, 12, Isabella, 9, and Melina, 7, participate in the consumer side of the business.

"At the moment my kids just love eating strawberries," he said.

Oz Fresh also has a 202ha strawberry farm at Caboolture, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

"We grow four million plants in Victoria and four million in Queensland," Joe said.

"Summer production down here and winter production in Queensland, so we produce strawberries all year round."

Joe estimates they produce about 15 million 250g punnets a year.

The business also grows mangoes at Mareeba, near Cairns, and peaches at Childers and Kumbia - totalling about 1011ha.

The stone fruit and mangoes are sold generically and the strawberries are branded under Oz Fresh.

"We'll start branding everything Oz Fresh soon in the New Year," Joe said.

Covers have been erected over most of the Victorian strawberries, with the remainder to be covered in the coming weeks.

It has taken a year to install the tunnels, and Joe couldn't be happier with the result.

"The covers help with pests, because you're actually controlling your environment and by doing that then you can control most things," he said.

"What happens in normal outside production is that you just have to roll with the punches.

"We've been able to have a consistent supply of fruit all the way through because of the covers, if we have any rain the fruit is protected, in any heat event the plants can be cooled by overhead misters."

The covers also allow pickers to pick directly into the punnet, rather than touch the fruit two or three times, lowering shelf life.

"It doesn't cut down on labour costs, it's about not touching the fruit," Joe said.

"We also pick the fruit with the stem, so we're not actually touching the berry at all. So, it's quick, fresh and pristine."

The tunnels can catch up to 600 megalitres of water a year, which is then used for irrigation.

Joe has recently installed a Galcon automated irrigation system from Israel.

The system records the soil and atmospheric temperatures, soil moisture and other conditions and delivers each individual plant the water and fertiliser it needs. It has been installed in 60 per cent of the Victorian site.

"What we have done is bolted on a hydroponic system on to field production and it's able to feed each plant exactly what it needs," Joe said. "We run our fertilisers through this as well.

"So rather than over or under-dosing, it saves us on costs by making sure we have the right quality fruit.

"The system uses radio technology instead of underground cables.

"There are sensors in the soil and ceiling."

The Victorian property has large irrigation licences, self-sufficient water sources, such as bores and water rights from the main creeks, as well as dams.

"We've got enough water storage on the property to run the farm with no water for a season," Joe said.

The company recently spent almost $1 million on an automated packing line from the Netherlands.

"It double checks all the fruit, checks the weight, has metal detectors to check for foreign objects, puts the lid on the punnets, puts the punnets in the boxes," Joe said.

"It can do 150 punnets a minute in full swing."

The machinery stops the fruit being subjected to high temperatures for long, meaning shelf life and quality is improved.

"Every hour the fruit is above 5C you lose one day's shelf life," Joe said.

The weight of the punnet is checked at two points, and fruit is added or subtracted so all punnets are equal.

There used to be 80-100 people on the packing line, now there are 14-16.

The farm also has a computer system that tracks produce all the way from the field to the packing shed and into the truck.

"It gives us full traceability and just one point of entry, so it minimises mistakes and losses," Joe said.

In Victoria, Oz Fresh grows albion and san andreas varieties and in Queensland the farm grows festival and camarosa.

"Albion strawberries are the best at Christmas," Joe said.

The Queensland season runs from late May to late October, and the Victorian season goes from October to June.

The Victorian site has up to 300 employees at peak production.

Joe said the most important thing to the consumer was taste and shelf life.

"You want to be able to pick up a strawberry and eat it now or leave the fruit in the fridge and eat it a week later," he said.

While Joe is happy with the size of the farm, he hopes to expand into the rest of the berry category with raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.

"That sector is increasing. People want flavour first and year-round supply of the berries in the other categories," he said.