Grower nominated for industry award

A SECOND-GENERATION grower from Mutchilba is making her mark in the horticultural industry, developing innovative products and championing change.

Tara Gauci-Quintieri, 27, is one of three growers nominated for this year’s Charlie Nastasi Horticultural Farmer of the Year Award, which will be announced at a dinner at Mareeba on Friday night.

FNQ Growers president Joe Moro said the prestigious award, at a dinner hosted by the Mareeba District Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, recognised outstanding innovation and/or exceptional leadership in the Tablelands horticultural industry.

Mrs Gauci-Quintieri is one of the youngest to be nominated for the honour.

Growing up on a farm with lychees, longans and limes, she first started to make her mark on the industry in 2005 after her family bought another farm and established a 20,000fruit tree orchard.

But, with the greater production came the high cost of importing crates for longans.

“With longans we have to import crates from China three months before the crop,” she said.

“We would estimate production based on the flowering, but then we had a few crop disasters due to natural disasters so we lost a crop but still had to store the crates in the packing shed.

“For us it was a major expense having the crates sit in the shed for another 12 months until we got to use them.”

Determined to find a better way, Mrs Gauci-Quintieri found a crate made from polypropylene using a machine made in China, which allows growers to display their product aesthetically and meet their packaging needs.

Then in 2014, she found a business at Mareeba offering crates, so bought and renamed the firm JAT Plastics.

“It wasn’t economically feasible to keep importing the crates,” she said.

“We knew we needed a reliable and cost-effective supply of crates for our own business security but also for the local horticultural industry as well.”

Mrs Gauci-Quintieri now has plans to develop new crates for mangoes and install a second machine.

She is also lobbying for changes to the Horticultural Code of Conduct after her family was recently the victim of a fruit wholesaler that went into liquidation, leaving a trail of unpaid debts to growers.