Fermenting the future

Could fine cheese, like wine, help drive regional growth? Kim Seagram thinks so

KIM Seagram is sitting in the IXL Long Bar at the Henry Jones Art Hotel on Hobart’s waterfront. As she regards the glass of pinot noir and cheeseboard before her, she sees the future. Not an alarming vision of herself as “a lush”, as she has jokingly self-described, with a predilection for brie.

What Seagram sees is a pair of fermented products that will help regional Tasmania thrive into the future.

Some local premium sparkling wine is now rivalling French Champagne. We are making waves with our bubbles and extracting a high value-add from our grapes in the process. Other varietals are riding high, too.

And success is providing regional employment from the vineyard to cellar door.

“Wine is the mouse that roared,” says Seagram.

The entrepreneur, who coowns top Launceston restaurants Stillwater and Black Cow Bistro, is chair of FermenTasmania and was formerly a deputy chair of the Brand Tasmania Council and a board director of Tourism Tasmania.

More recently she teamed up with former Jansz sparkling winemaker Natalie Fryar to launch the Abel Gin Co. As a great-great granddaughter of the man who started Seagrams, once the world’s biggest alcohol producer, Seagram feels right at home.

The Canadian native has lived in Tasmania for 25 years.

What she would love to see now is more Tasmanian dairy products finding wide acclaim. We are missing the boat, she says – almost literally, in a premium export sense. She wonders why we are still producing so much milk powder and so few cheeses that could rival the best French ones? With notable exceptions, Seagram says manufacturers are mostly focused at the lower end of the market.

Fermen-Tasmania is an incubator organisation that aims to provide a home for makers to create new fermented products that will either birth new businesses or grow existing ones.

Part of its mission is to build a facility that can also become a world-class training centre for fermentation.

Last month, Seagram announced the group has secured about $800,000 of funding from Food Innovation Australia Ltd’s Cluster Grant program.

Humans have been fermenting food and drinks for centuries.

“Fermentation is that delicious alchemy that transforms primary produce into something that is a valueadded product,” she says.

It relies on microbial starters – mostly bacteria or yeast – to transform a carbohydrate base into an acid or alcohol, which then preserves the product.

We’re a wellspring of fermented faves with our sought-after wine, beer, cider and spirit.

Now, says Seagram, is the time to expand agri-food enterprises. In dairy, she sees potential not just in exquisite cheeses, but probiotics, yoghurt, cultured butter, kefir and more.

Tasmanian farmers increased milk supply by a nation-leading 9 per cent during 2017-18 to 863 million litres.

“We produce about 10 per cent of the country’s milk, but a lot of it gets powdered off and sold as a global commodity, so we are not really extracting the value from it,” says Seagram.

Compare that with the national wine industry. With a much smaller percentage of the wine crush, we have a much bigger footprint.

Seagram also sees export opportunity for fermented vegetables, particularly organics.

“Australia is not a pickled culture,” she says, “but if you look at a map, from Eastern Europe through to India, China and South East Asia and Japan, all eat fermented vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

“Meanwhile, we’ve got a whole bunch of vegetables that don’t meet supermarket specifications.

Why are we ploughing them into the ground or feeding them to the animals? Why aren’t we fermenting them?

“We are working with some of the most incredible produce in the world and we can get a premium.”

Seagram wants FermenTasmania to have its facility on the ground in the north of the state next year. The organisation awaits the outcome of a $4 million government grant application.

On a broader scale, Seagram says that instead of getting stuck in boom/bust industry cycles, Tasmania could put more energy into creating legacy industries.

“Do we want the next big shiny thing or something so deeply grounded and rooted in the Tasmanian community that it goes for generations?”