Fresh way to source food
ERICA HUGHES IS DEDICATED TO HER CAUSE – CONNECTING FARMERS WITH CONSUMERS, INCLUDING RESTAURANTS AND EVERYDAY SHOPPERS – WITH HER FARMER MEETS FOODIE PLATFORM,
FROM her picturesque property at Mt Molloy, Erica Hughes is quietly and confidently changing the landscape of the agricultural industry.
She’s the brains and drive behind Farmer Meets Foodie, an online platform connecting producers with restaurants and – now, in this mid-pandemic, hospitality-devoid society – everyday consumers.
Although the business takes up most of her time these days, Ms Hughes also squeezes in one day a week to work with the University of Southern Queensland interpreting climate patterns for graziers.
She said a trial app for Farmer Meets Foodie had been ticking along for a while but would be officially unveiled this weekend, connecting the best of Tropical North Queensland’s bounty with food-lovers across the state.
“A virtual marketplace is a good way to look at it,” the mum-of-two said.
“It’s been a long process, it is like Tinder for produce really.
“It has a shop front, a shopping cart and buyers can just put everything in the cart and pay the farmers direct. You can turn geolocation on to search for what’s in your area.”
But Ms Hughes said finding the right tech team took a while.
“There’s pros to being in a regional centre. If you work in a smaller community they know you and are prepared to try things out. You can build a community quite easily compared to the city,” she explained.
“The flip side is not having the knowledge of the technology and not being able to easily meet people in that space. It involves quite a lot of travel.
“But I’m in the AgFrontier Regional Agtech Incubator program and having that kind of network opened me up to the other technology that was around.
“There’s a lot of opportunities here in Far North Queensland. We’ve got the opportunity now to continue to build up from what’s happening.
“The region is very strong in farming and hospitality, usually, so after COVID-19 it would be nice if we took the opportunity to really showcase the region as a food destination as well as somewhere for the Reef and rainforest.
“I feel we haven’t done a good job at promoting that side. We have some really good food festivals but they haven’t been promoted as a whole.
“And we have some fantastic niche products we could take to export markets, al
ERICA HUGHES ALSO SQUEEZES IN ONE DAY A WEEK TO WORK WITH THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND, INTERPRETING CLIMATE PATTERNS FOR GRAZIERS
though that’s not really the space I’m in.
“We’d love for Farmer Meets Foodie to go nationwide – we’ve got businesses trialling it out in southeast Queensland and northern NSW.
“Our vision is for the producers to get a better return on their product.
“The average farmer gets less than 10 per cent of the final price of the product. We’d like to see that get back to 90 per cent and keep that money in the region and put it back into the community, as well as reducing food miles.
“We are looking for more businesses to jump on board and for foodies to get on the app and start ordering things.”
Rainforest Bounty’s blueberry and ooray plum jam is one of Ms Hughes’ favourite
WE’D LOVE FOR FARMER MEETS FOODIE TO GO NATIONWIDE – WE’VE GOT BUSINESSES TRIALLING IT OUT IN SOUTHEAST QUEENSLAND AND NORTHERN NSW ERICA HUGHES
local products, along with Mungalli Milk and the region’s coffee producers.
The former natural resource management worker grew up on a cattle farm at Dayboro, north of Brisbane.
Despite an obvious passion for the industry, Ms Hughes said she didn’t consider farming to be a career option when she left school, instead studying forestry.
Her job took her to the Atherton Tablelands, Western Australia, Central Queensland and into the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the family spent six years before returning south and settling at Mt Molloy. Bringing up a son and a daughter, both now studying, has been Ms Hughes’ greatest accomplishment and quality family time has been the hallmark of most of her downtime away from Farmer Meets Foodie.
“I love being outside on the farm, doing gardening. I love to grow stuff, head to the beach, the creeks, go out exploring the tropical north, which I probably don’t do enough of,” she said.
“I spend a bit of time mucking around with the horses and our cattle and we have lots of plans to grow bush food products on the property.”