By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A NARRE Warren North-based fruit producer is pitching for a $10 million grant to open export markets and create a tourist attraction.
Montague Fresh put its case for support for its $45 million initiative to Trade and Investment Minister Steven Ciobo and La Trobe MP Jason Wood who toured its 80-hectare orchards and factory on 31 May.
The vision would potentially add 100 jobs to Monatague’s 300-full time equivalent workforce.
Retail and export general manager Scott Montague said the 68-year-old business hoped to expand its exports from 5 per cent of sales to 30 per cent in response to an increasingly saturated domestic market.
Its export drive was particularly targeting markets in South East Asia, China and the UK and had already been helped by recent free trade agreements.
“The future is in exporting,” Mr Montague said.
“We’re not going to get much of a lift in consumption in Australia.”
The fruit – an attractive, tasty product for overseas customers – is planted throughout Australia and ready to go within a few years.
Montague is celebrating 10 years of its hybrid Jazz apple with further varieties such as the “sweetest of the sweet” Envy apple to be launched shortly.
“We’re more expensive but we have better sugars,” Mr Montague said.
“I believe we have the best-eating and looking fruit in the world.”
As part of the plan, the company will create a larger distribution centre and packing house which would have more stringent international food standards.
The distribution centre would include harvests from other growers, providing a more efficient supply chain to domestic and overseas markets, Mr Montague said.
“We want to work more collaboratively. Our real competitors aren’t here but are in Chile and South America.”
On the tourism side, the planned customer engagement centre would provide an education on fruit-growing.
“These days the links between urban and rural Australia are only getting wider,” Mr Montague said.
“When you bring kids through now you see the buzz that they get.”
Mr Ciobo said he was excited by Montague’s export, education and tourism plans.
“Together with Jason Wood, we will look at opportunities that assist them to develop that sort of infrastructure.”
Mr Wood said the Government would look at how to help Montague get its project off the ground – through removing possible trade barriers and grants.
“They put food on the table for its workers. If we can grow their exports, it means more jobs locally,” he said.
