A QUEENSLAND garlic-growing family has been granted $400,000 from Coles to increase production.
St George family business Moonrocks has become the first Queensland recipient of a Coles Nurture Fund grant.
Launched in April, the Coles Nurture Fund will provide $50 million in grants and loans over five years to businesses in the food and grocery sector so they can grow and innovate.
Fifth generation farmers Andrew and David Moon will look to purchase a controlled temperature storage facility, new machinery and equipment to size and pack the garlic at St George.
Moonrocks will use the funds to help replace garlic imports from September to December each year when not enough Australian garlic is grown to meet customer demand.
Coles managing director John Durkan said the grant will help stem imported garlic appearing on supermarket shelves.
“Our customers really want Australian-grown produce and Moonrocks now has the potential to provide Australian-grown garlic to the local market for a much longer period each year. "Our aspiration is to one day eliminate garlic imports,” he said.
“Moonrocks has been supplying Coles for 17 years and has helped Coles to eliminate all imports of red, white and brown onions in recent years. Now we look forward to working with them to help close the gap on garlic imports.”
Andrew Moon said his family was thrilled to hear they would receive a Coles Nurture Fund grant.
“This will enable us to close the gap on garlic imports. The flow on effects to communities like our own will be huge," Mr Moon said.
"I think that it will allow us to employ more people and it will allow us to use local tradespeople to build some of the infrastructure that we need."
Tasmanian berry grower Westerway Raspberry Farm also received a Coles Nurture Fund grant to adopt new freezing technology which will allow them to supply locally-grown frozen raspberries to customers on a large scale.
It will make the farm the first in Australia to adopt the technology.
Businesses with less than $25 million in annual revenue and 50 or fewer full-time employees can apply for the next round of funding from the Coles Nurture Fund as from September 25.
