Inside Barden Produce’s operations in Gatton
BARDEN Produce grows and distributes fresh herbs and vegetables to supermarkets and food processors across Australia.
They have facilities in three different locations – Kemps Creek and Peats Ridge in NSW and Gatton in Queensland.
The Kemps Creek processing operation ships more than 400,000 retail units a week to customers around the country.
The facility processes more than 50 separate produce lines on a daily basis.
Their facility at Peats Ridge on the Central Coast of NSW has been established to grow and pack a range of herbs and Asian vegetables and to supply existing pre-pack facilities for a wide range of products.
In Gatton there’s a state-of-the-art packing and processing facility along with a hydroponic and field growing operation.
Rural Weekly recently took a tour of the Gatton site where they grow lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, silverbeet, herbs and Asian vegetables.
Quality assurance manager Donna Durham and farm manager Trevor Pezet discussed the day-to-day operations of the Gatton property and its supply chain.
THE FARM
OPERATING under Wavertree Farms, part of the Barden Produce Group, the Lockyer Valley property is 50ha spread over three blocks.
The amount of produce produced on the farm each year changes depending on orders. One of the biggest variable is seasonal availability.
“We run two operations – a hydroponic facility and in-ground production,”
Mr Pezet said.
“The hydroponics is predominantly Asian vegetables.
“All our herbs are in-ground, open-field production, which are all cut and packed for the supermarkets.
“Because we grow it ourselves we have 100 per cent traceability from being on the ground and 100 per cent of our product goes through the shed here.
“I would say it’s a maximum of three or four days, for example, between broccoli being cut on our farm and to being on supermarket shelves.”
Everything grown on the farm is for the domestic market.
“About 90 per cent goes to retail,” Mr Pezet said.
The other 10 per cent is for Lite n’ Easy.
“At the moment we’re not doing any export but we do have the option,” Mr Pezet said.
❝ All our herbs are in-ground, open-field production, which are all cut and packed for the supermarkets.
HYDROPONICS
THE hydroponics operation is run 12 months of the year focusing on growing bok choy, pak choi, choy sum and Chinese broccoli.
“This time of year turnaround for pak choi and bok choy is about three to four weeks, from transplanting into the hole to harvest,” Mr Pezet said.
“It’s about four to five for the Chinese broccoli.
“We have six sections and we have two sheds with three tanks each, so each section has its own recirculating tank.
“It’s a 24/7 recirculating water system with nutrition in it. It gets pumped out at the top of the tables and runs through until the end of the table and back to the tank.
“Each table is numbered across so we know where we’re harvesting from but also for spray records and full traceability of the product.
“When we harvest it we just cut off the root plug and we bunch it here on the tables.
“It gets bunched with a rubber band, the roots are cut straight off and then straight into Coles or Aldi or whichever customer’s crates are necessary.”
Mr Pezet said about 95 per cent of their seed stock was imported.
“A lot of the brassica product comes out of Asia, Japanese and South Korean breeding programs,” he said.
“Genetic developments are ongoing all the time as well, for disease resistance, faster growth, but a lot of it comes from overseas breeding production.”
Mr Pezet said they had some issues with pests and diseases.
“Our biggest problem is probably diamondback moth, as anyone who deals with broccoli, cauliflower or any other brassica vegetable will know,” he said.
— Trevor Pezet