Reilly family of Gurra Downs Date Company takes the lead in emerging Medjool industry
With grapevines dying on their Riverland farm, the Reilly family took a bold leap into date palms to reverse their fortunes.
The Reilly family’s date fruit operation in South Australia’s Riverland is enjoying sweet success as the nation’s biggest producer in the emerging industry, with plans to boost output this year.
Dave, Anita and Shaun Reilly run Gurra Downs Date Company on 250ha near Berri. The company produces about 80 per cent of Australian-grown dates, selling through Woolworths and independent supermarkets.
The Reillys first decided to try the salt-tolerant crop in the early ’90s, when their irrigation water from the Gurra Gurra Wetlands started to become salty, threatening their fledgling horticulture operation.
“We purchased the property in 1990,” Dave said. “When we first moved here, the Murray River system was in a wet phase. We had seven floods in five years.
“If somebody had told me in 1993 that we weren’t going to get another flood in 17 years, we would have rolled up our swags and moved.
“Each year the water quality got worse and worse.”
By 1996, their grapevines were dying and the Reillys were “under a lot of pressure” to make a change.
“We did a lot of research into salt tolerant crops,” Dave said. “While there are a few, we focused on what we believed to be the most commercially relevant, which is date palms.”
Since then, Dave and Anita have travelled the world researching cultivars, and imported the most promising into Australia.
“We’ve had to do a whole lot of reinvesting in ourselves and our careers to get a system in place where we could actually import these plants,” Dave said.
Dave also completed a Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship in 2012 to learn about post-harvest operations.
One of their farms has been certified organic since 2003, with geese and sheep used to graze weeds so they don’t have to spray herbicides.
They have been selling commercially for 14 years, supply trees to other growers, and are supplying Woolworths this coming season. The supermarket giant has awarded them a $414,000 grant to fund efficiency measures such as a washing and sorting line in their packhouse, to boost output.
“Up until then we were literally holding a garden hose, squirting the fruit to wash off the dust,” Dave said. “Everything was done by hand.
“The grant from Woolworths will help us develop a packing facility with processing equipment that can efficiently handle higher volumes and create value-add opportunities for our fruit.”
DEMAND FOR DATES
While dates are increasing in popularity with Australian consumers, local supply remains limited.
The domestic market relies on imported dates from countries such as Mexico and the US to meet demand.
Woolworths commercial director of fruit and veg Paul Turner said the supermarket was proud to back the Reilly family’s business to help meet demand for organic produce with Australian-grown fruit.
“Over the last three years, demand for organic fruit and vegetables has increased by around 30 per cent, as customers become more interested in where their food comes from and how it’s grown,” he said.
“We will always choose Australian fruit and veg first. By supporting local growers like the Reillys, we can help customers put more Australian produce into their shopping baskets each week.”
Woolworths also invested in the future of the Australian date industry a decade ago, as the industry sponsor of Dave Reilly’s Nuffield Scholarship.
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