FORTH agricultural producer Premium Fresh Tasmania won this year’s Tasmanian Government regional exporter of the year award for outstanding export achievement by a business whose head office is based in a non-metropolitan location.

From left, Premium Fresh Tasmania owners – brothers Rick, Jim and Mike Ertler

Premium Fresh Tasmania is a family business, owned by brothers Mike, Rick and Jim Ertler.   The company operates its factory on the same family farm that was established over 55 years ago and utilises the latest technology to grow and pack over 40,000 tonnes of carrots, onions, swedes, turnips, shallots, leeks, broccoli, eschalions and beetroot a year.    The company supplies all major supermarkets across Australia and exports to targeted northern hemisphere markets.

Exporting since 2005 but significantly expanding export volumes over the past two years, Premium Fresh Tasmania ships shallots, eschalions, onions and carrots to customers in the international markets of France, UK, Belgium, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.   It boasts a team within the workforce purely dedicated to exports and total employment has grown significantly from 159 in 2010 to 193 in 2011.   Market expansion will continue in 2012 with Premium Fresh Tasmania supplying new customers in Germany and the Nordic countries.

Company strengths include innovation, quality control which includes full traceability, and marketing the vegetables’ Tasmanian origin as being a reliably clean, fresh and pure environment.   The export season is January to the end of May where Premium Fresh Tasmania takes advantage of the window of opportunity created by shipping new season product to northern hemisphere markets where fresh vegetables would otherwise not be available or where old season product would be offered on supermarket shelves.

Premium Fresh Tasmania will continue to develop new products for both the domestic and export markets and expanding the volume of current products to fully utilise the existing infrastructure.   Tasmania’s main competitor is New Zealand and to a lesser extent other southern hemisphere countries although it is acknowledged that vegetable exporters in those countries are becoming more professional.

Exporting this year has been difficult because of the high Australian dollar, issues with moving freight from Tasmania to be loaded on international vessels and the adverse weather affected growing and harvesting season however Tasmania’s reliability was evident with Tasmania suffering the least of every other state of Australia.

Extremely delighted and proud of winning the Export Award, the brothers paid tribute to their “fantastic team of people” and particularly the export team headed by Cherie Holloway.   Premium Fresh Tasmania also value the good relationship with their 60 growers.   The staff and growers are their biggest resource in promoting the excellent public image the company enjoys.

Premium Fresh Tasmania is a client of TCCI’s TradeStart Adviser Sally Chandler, having joined the New Exporter Development Program in August 2004.   As the winner of the Tasmanian regional exporter of the year award, the company is now an automatic finalist in the same category of the Australian export awards to be held in Brisbane during December.   We wish them well in the national finals.