Moon brothers say g'day to new garlic products range

The fifth generation farming business at St George, run by brothers Andrew and David Moon, started work on their G'day Garlic range during the pandemic last year.

The new brand launched in their region in late 2020, offering locals the chance to try the products months before the rest of the world.

Now the company is ready to sell the new products to the rest of the world, with sales to begin March 8 from the G'day Garlic website.

The Moons have been farming in the St George region for more than 40 years, catering to both the domestic and international market. In 2020 Moonrocks supplied the domestic market with several hundred tonnes of garlic.

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The business first took on the challenge of growing garlic 14 years ago, starting with lengthy commercial crop trials before the product was ready for national supermarket chains.

"Garlic is a very labour-intensive crop with a high level of risk attached to it," Andrew Moon said.

"It's a real balancing act that relies on finding the perfect mix of varieties, growing environment, water and storage conditions.

"If all of these elements aren't aligned then failure could be just around the corner."

The new arm of the business was born out of growing consumer desire for Australian grown produce, largely fuelled by COVID-19. It was the push needed to bring the G'Day Garlic brand to fruition.

The new brand's garlic powders deliver a truly paddock to plate experience with processing and packaging taking place on farm.

The creation of new local jobs is also on the cards thanks to future infrastructure requirements for the business' growth.

The Moons believe the new brand pairs well with parent brand' Moonrocks, which fills shelves in Coles stores across the country with their garlic and onions.

"It took us a long time to perfect our commercial garlic cropping, but we felt like there was a gap in the market for packaged garlic products that satisfied the Aussie grown demand, so that's where G'day Garlic comes into the mix," Mr Moon said.

"We have spent over two years trialling these specific garlic powders which will be the first items to launch in our online store."

Additional products are also in the offing, with minced and pickled garlic trials currently underway.

The launch of the new brand will also benefit Moonrocks' local community with the creation of new jobs on the horizon, including the future infrastructure requirements for the business' growth which will see opportunities for local trades.

Beyond their new brand, the Moon brothers continue to diversify with a successful first sweet corn crop coming off in late 2020, with sweet corn set to be a regular summer crop into the future.

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