They aim to produce a viable alternative to imports for food manufacturers in Australia, as well as targeting the export industry, but they've yet to find a market for freeze-dried strawberries. SSS Strawberries has also invested in Freeze Dry Industries, a factory in Yandina, and have scaled up production. They trucked 40 tonnes of strawberries to a cold-storage facility on the Sunshine Coast from their large family-owned farm in Bundaberg. SSS Strawberries in Bundaberg is one of Australia's biggest strawberry farms. Toan Nguyen and Gina Dang are a husband-and-wife team from SSS Strawberries. It is not just small growers that are gambling on freeze drying for a better future. Australia's biggest grower hunting for a market The dynamics of Australian strawberry growing have changed, with fewer farms producing more fruit.īigger businesses operate in different regions and states to provide year-round supply direct to supermarkets and reduce the risk of damaging weather events. "I mean we've only got 25 million people in the country, so we'll either have to look at other solutions, export being one of them, or we're going have to try and rationalise it as an industry itself and see if we can actually reduce the amount of runners that are being grown." "Queensland I think has 45 million plants in the ground, the average plant should produce three punnets, so that's 130 million punnets that come out of Queensland alone," Mr Schultz said. Queensland provides up to 30,000 tonnes of strawberries to the nation throughout winter and spring.įreeze drying is a possible solution to the oversupply in strawberries in Queensland. The take-up of new varieties like the Queensland-bred red rhapsody have increased productivity, but Mr Schultz said the biggest challenge for the industry was the number of plants in the ground. "We are seeing strawberry farms fail on a yearly basis and I wouldn't be surprised if we have more this year," he said. Mr Schultz, who is also the vice-president of the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association, said costs had risen and returns weren't what they used to be. "You can just throw it all over your ice cream, you can put it in your yoghurt, I use mine in my chia pudding, it is just beautiful," she said.Īfter last year's test run proved popular, the family loaded up a tonne of reject strawberries and trucked them off to a freeze-drying factory as a positive step towards improving farm turnover.īut even with new strawberry products, the family can no longer rely solely on a single fruit and has diversified into finger limes and herbs. Ms Schutlz said freeze-dried, preservative-free strawberry powder was also popular with cooks. ( ABC News: Jennifer Nichols)įreeze drying extends the shelf life of perishable fruit and finds a use for berries marked by rain. The Schultz family turned to freeze drying as a way to extend the shelf life of the fruit and find a use for marked or damaged berries.
"I got really fed up with seeing kids eating a lot of artificial colours and flavours and a lot of our processed strawberry products in our supermarket are actually imported." "Crunch with punch, they're lovely and crispy and it's just pure strawberries," Ms Schultz said.
"Because we started helping other farmers, that group has now hit over 5,100." Freeze drying a solution to tonnes of wasteīut it's another value-added product that this enterprising mum and dietician believes has even greater potential: freeze-dried strawberries. "This time last year we thought we were really clever and excited, we had 500 people that got involved with our group," Ms Schultz said. The family's growing season has ended but their "car park parties" have expanded to include new suburbs, cities and towns, finding a use for their frozen strawberries and surplus frozen fruit from other farms. Wamuran strawberry farmers Adrian and Mandy Schultz have been hit hard by the strawberry glut, with falling prices hurting their bottom line.
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