Small growers meeting demand for Australian grown garlic
Australia’s garlic industry has developed an Australian-first quality framework. This is a legacy o…Australia’s garlic industry has developed an Australian-first quality framework. This is a legacy of the successful Farming Together program. A co-op of 30 garlic growers from Braidwood, New South Wales developed the framework as part of the $60,000 funded project.
The Australian Government-backed program supported the group of small-scale growers meeting demand for Australian-grown, chemical-free garlic.
Branded as BraidGarlic, the growers aim to expand production of late-season garlic to meet market demand from April to November, a time when Australia normally imports garlic. Currently only about 20 percent of garlic sold in Australia is grown domestically.
One of the project leaders, grower Bronwyn Richards said garlic is a crop well-suited to small-scale cultivation, often as a diversified crop alongside other primary production.
Bombalatimes.com.au quoted Farming Together program director Lorraine Gordon as saying: “The project not only built capacity within the Braidwood garlic co-op, it delivered learnings that will benefit the whole industry.”