Australia
March 3, 2021
“Soil health is non-negotiable. It’s an ongoing commitment that ensures you keep producing year after year” - Fresh Select CEO and Founder John Said. Operating for almost 30 years, Fresh Select works across Victoria, growing crops in-ground and through protective cropping, supplying domestic supermarkets, restaurants, and exporting to Singapore and Hong Kong all year round. With crops including lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbages – Fresh Select has a product in every Coles supermarket in Australia.
CEO and founder John Said said a critical element of the extraordinary success of Fresh Select is soil health, utilising minimum tillage, controlled traffic, composting, and cover cropping programs that support sustainable, long-term vegetable production.
“Rather than composting sporadically, Fresh Select sets aside a program of compost each year to ensure organic matter is put back into the soil to create a natural environment for worms and microbiology,” Mr Said said.
“This way we are investing in our greatest asset and we ensure our soil works hard for us, supporting greater quality and reliability of production and the ability to forecast and plan for the years ahead.
“If our soils require more attention after composting, a cover crop of sorghum, rye corn or millet may be sown to break the cropping cycle. These crops grow fully before being completely ploughed back into the ground for them to build organic carbon and buffering capacity in our soils.
“For us, investing in and cultivating our soil is essential. We continually monitor and adjust to make sure our soils will continue to produce high quality sustainable crops year-round,” Mr Said said.
In addition, to maintain their crops and soil health a range of Bayer products are used to support Fresh Select farm’s Integrated Pest Management approach including Movento, Belt, Infinito and Serenade Prime.
Extensive data across genetics, crop type, soil moisture, bugs, weeds and yields are collected to ensure continual improvement.
“The collection of yield data is a very important read on our farms. Our soils are always changing and what might work one season will change for the next. We are always on the lookout for the right crop on the right soil,” Mr Said said.
Mr Said believes the challenges in horticulture will continue to get harder with the impacts of climate change, consumer needs and labour availability being difficult to plan for.
“What’s next is to have a production model that is sustainable and has the ability to expand. Innovation is essential to this and allows us to stay ahead of the curve.”
Fresh Select
Fresh Select has built a strong reputation for providing only the freshest and carefully selected vegetables to local and overseas markets. Headquartered in Melbourne’s Werribee South region, appropriately deemed the ‘salad bowl of Victoria,’ today Fresh Select are one of the largest lettuces and brassica farmers in Australia.
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