Gippsland family to sell leading greenhouse property

A large-scale protected cropping property renowned for its eggplants and tomatoes in West Gippsland has been listed for sale.

The Hobson family are selling their 12.58ha Gippsland Greenhouse Produce facility near Yarragon.

A Gippsland family have listed their first-class large-scale protected cropping business for sale, preparing to end a tenure spanning two decades of production.

The Hobson family are selling Gippsland Greenhouse Produce, a 12.58ha property, regarded as one of the largest producers of eggplants in Australia.

Located on the Princes Highway, between Yarragon and Trafalgar, the West Gippsland greenhouse has produced truss tomatoes as well as eggplants in previous seasons.

Comprising three glasshouses, Gippsland Greenhouse Produce offers a combined area of 2.57ha (25,720 sqm) under glass, developed into three zones, including the 4080 sqm of glass built in 2009.

A further 12,320 sqm was developed in 2014 while an additional 9320 sqm was then developed in 2019, with each of the glasshouses reaching six metres to the gutter and comprising high pressure fogging screens.

Inside one of the Gippsland Greenhouse Produce’s glasshouses.

Further glasshouse infrastructure includes hanging gutters, circulation fans and concrete paths, with the glasshouses heated by a Polytechnik biomass woodchip boiler.

The Hobson family and Colliers Agribusiness selling agents Duncan McCulloch and Rawdon Briggs declined to comment on the listing.

Gippsland Greenhouse Produce is for sale via expressions of interest, no closing date has been listed. No price guide has been offered for the asset.

Existing structural improvements include a packing shed, computer shed comprising two offices, fertigation system, workshop, five-bay lockable machinery shed, open-bay tractor shed, and a storage shed that includes fertigation, storage tanks and foggers.

Gippsland Greenhouse Produce is regarded as one of the leading eggplant producers in Australia.

There is also a packing line, boiler and gas condenser, 30-tonne liquid CO2 tank, several water storage tanks, three-phase power and a back-up diesel generator.

The notable listing comes weeks after a Goulburn Valley family sold their 21ha Katunga Fresh glasshouse facility, to Sydney-based ASX-listed real estate fund manager Centuria Capital Group in a nine-figure, off-market, sale-and-leaseback deal with a 20-year triple-net lease.

The asset is owned by the unlisted, open-ended Centuria Agriculture Fund, with Katunga Fresh to continue operating the facility, led by Peter van den Goor.

Centuria also made headlines in June 2022 with a $177 million purchase of the 76.88ha Flavorite Warragul facility in a leaseback deal.