Restoring confidence vital
Strawberry campaign a sweet start to summer
SPIRIT and fight has helped salvage the Queensland strawberry industry from ruin, according to one of its leading growers.
State Agriculture Minister Mark Furner was on the Granite Belt last week, where he was on hand to help launch the start of the summer strawberry season.
Mr Furner visited Applethorpe’s Eastern Colour, where he also talked up a new $600,000 government-funded “confidence” campaign.
“I’m telling Queenslanders to get out there and support your Queensland farmers. Make sure you get out there in your stores and support Queensland strawberries,” the minister said.
The campaign, part of the Palaszczuk Government’s $1 million contribution, aims to bring consumer confidence back to the product.
“It entails a promotional program making sure people are aware it’s a great, sweet, fresh, clean, green produce and make sure you continue to eat strawberries.”
Mr Furner said “sinister” acts had brought the industry to its knees, however police had reduced their investigations.
“It’s a difficult trace to follow through the supply chain and at this point in time we’re not any closer to finding out who might have been involved in that.
“It has been scaled down because of other pressures and other needs,” he said.
For Eastern Colour owner Nathan Baronio, they’ve turned focus from the bad to the good and want to ensure a stellar season is forthcoming.
“We’ve got a huge, amazing season coming and we’re ready to provide beautiful strawberries to everyone in Queensland ready for Christmas.
“I’d like to give a huge thank you to the community because it was a team effort to really bring the situation to focus back on positivity.
“The fighting spirit of Queenslanders and Australians … it was really amazing.
“(It was) stressful. We were just at the footstep of our new season and we didn’t know where it was going to lead.
“I think that the key was we got together as government and industry and realised it was good produce and it’s about selling good, safe, beautiful strawberries to everyone,” he said.
Queensland Strawberry Growers Association president Luigi Coco said the true cost of the tampering scandal wouldn’t be fully known for another 12 months.
“At the time of the initial incident, the industry was producing over 800,000 punnets a day and that came to a standstill over a few issues that weren’t managed correctly.
“A lot, unfortunately, was social media.
“The industry is recovering now, good sales, it’s moving, but it needs to stay there. The full recovery will be this time next year when we go through the winter season,” he said.
With the support of the government, the association will undertake another large-scale advertising campaign next year in the lead-in to the winter strawberry season.
“It’s one thing putting up with the weather, but when it’s out of the growers’ control like this has been, that’s when it hurts most,” Mr Coco said.