John Said of Fresh Select at Werribee reaches for the stars

PROVENANCE and innovation are keys to the success of fresh produce poster boy John Said.

Fresh is best: Fresh Select chief executive John Said (right) with celebrity chef Curtis Stone on his farm at Werribee.

APPEARING on hit TV show My Kitchen Rules was not part of John Said’s farm business plan.

But when Coles — to which John supplies his Fresh Select produce — asked him to appear in the latest series­, handing cauliflowers and let­tuces to contestants, he agreed.

“The biggest trend in food now is around provenance,” said John, who has also appeared alongside celebrity chef Curtis Stone.

“That new celebrity status of farmers, if you like, is an extension of what we do, of educating the public.”

John, who is chairman of the Produce Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand, has become something of a poster boy for Coles and the horticulture industry thanks to his business nous.

His 30-year-old company Fresh Select, which he runs with business partner Con Ballan, has more than 2000ha of production. This includes their original 200ha farm at Werribee in Victoria, home to their distribution centre, as well as contracted farms in Queensland (one of which also has a dist­ribution centre) and South Australia.

Fresh Select has 16 lines in total, producing year round with most grown in their own seed nurseries, yielding 40 million kilograms annually. Ninety-five per cent is sold to Coles and the remainder sold either as exports in South-East Asia, or to food services or wholesale markets.

LETTUCE AT ‘EM

LETTUCES are the biggest seller, such as iceberg, cos and baby cos.

But Fresh Select also innovates into new lines, working with overseas seed companies. Five years ago it secured the Australian patent for symphony lettuce — a combination of three varieties of lettuce, green oak, green coral and red coral leaves, which sells 25,000 a week.

This is grown at the company’s Point Lonsdale hydroponic farm, which has 6500 square metres of hi-tech glasshouse and 8000 sq m of low-tech (hail netted) cropping.

Last month Fresh Select released the first commercial quantities of kalettes — a cross between kale and brussels sprouts — for which they are the only Australian grower, marketer and licence­-holder. Such innovations provide a quick glimpse into John’s vision for the company.

In fact if John has a favourite word, it’s innovation. “If we don’t innovate­ we are out of the game,” the 51-year-old said. “Innovation is not just at one end, but across the whole supply chain. You can’t isolate one aspect.

“It’s all about being as effective and efficient as possible, reducing your costs, using the best technology and keeping up with consumer trends.”

CHAIN REACTION

JOHN said it was innovation that first saw them export broccoli to South-East Asia for a decade and when the Chinese undercut their price, they shifted focus to the domestic market, initially selling to Coles through a third party and then selling direct to the supermarket chain.

“Every year since we have tried something different, innovating­, growing different lines. There’s never been a year we’ve done something the same.”

John said with competitiveness in the Australian fresh food industry only increasing, he has never become complacent, with pressure across the whole supply chain to find new markets and maintain market share.

“On the farm that means you’ve got to be right on top of things. There’s no room for error.”

John said his “No.1 priority” was soil health. Fresh Select, which has 200 staff, is in the process of implementing a composting regimen.

Under the guidance of a US soil health specialist, working with the company’s agronomy team, it is creating a compost using chicken manure, green waste and woodchips from the local shire, starting with an initial trial of 1500 tonnes­, then measuring the effect before increasing volumes.

In addition, Fresh Select is “going back to basics” and applying more non-cash revenue crops such as sorghum and ryecorn to build up soil carbon, prevent soil degradation and break down disease

NATURAL APPROACH

FRESH Select has instigated an Integrated Pest Management system, in some instances reducing chemical use by up to 70 per cent.

Ten years ago it introduced populations of beneficial insects, which have become resident. But John said, depending on conditions, they still require some spraying, with an outbreak of Rutherglen bug in January this year requiring an insecticide — where possible biological rather than broad spectrum.

“About 20 years ago you’d spray anything with wings, now it’s ‘IPM, you don’t do it? Why not?’ We’d certainly even consider going organic in future­. It’s just one of the init­iatives we’re looking into.”

John has been a major advocate for improvements in irrigation­ infrastructure in the Werribee region (where 60 per cent of the state’s vegetables are grown), only last month helping to secure $20 million funding to convert open channels to closed pipes, though water quality continues to be a problem, high in salt content.

“The quality won’t change until we get good rains. We are close to drought here. The last three years we’ve had well below-average rainfall with no water in our storages.”

SERVE IT UP

PRODUCE is picked and transported seven days a week.

John said innovation continues through post-harvest. Fresh Select uses vacuum cooling technology which “means we can get a semi-trailer loader with lettuce distributed within three hours”.

“It’s basically a rapid cooling. Normal cooling time to maintain shelf and home life is 24 hours, but ours is 30 minutes.”

Fresh Select was the first company in Australia to introduce the convenience of iceberg lettuce already in a bag, which means retailers don’t need to handle or trim the lettuce and consumers receive best quality.

To reduce waste most of their produce is packed in returnable plastic crates. So given John’s focus on inno­vation, what are the tips and trends for the industry? He’s working on a trio of herbs grown together, but would not provide details.

“Consumers will continue to be very frugal and conscious of value,” he said. “As for the industry, I like to travel and share knowledge, to see what’s happening around the world and keep my eyes open and finger on the pulse.”