Growers aim to expand Australia's pomegranate market

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Pomegranates are a staple in the Middle East and mediterranean diets, but haven't quite taken off in Australia.  Landline's Kerry Staight looks into how the juicy red seeds are more than just a garnish.

Transcript

00:00At Maipalonga east of Adelaide, the rush is on to harvest the last of the season's pomegranate

00:08crop.

00:09But when the Goldsteins first got into this fruit, making money from it was not the priority.

00:18Originally this orchard was set up to test irrigation equipment, the family imports and

00:24sells.

00:25We needed to try it here in the climate of Australia in a real situation and my grandmother

00:31used to have five trees of pomegranate behind the house and I thought it's easy.

00:39But it was not easy, as Mayor and Annette Goldstein found out when they imported trees

00:44from Israel and started planting in 2008.

00:49If you're talking about agronomists and people that can give you advice, there's nobody in

00:56Australia that knew it.

00:57When we started we had to go overseas and learn.

01:03When the trees matured and they decided to make the most of what they were growing and

01:07sell the pomegranates, they weren't exactly inundated with buyers.

01:13For while Mayor and Annette grew up eating the ancient fruit in Israel, in Australia

01:18it's still considered an emerging industry.

01:22I think the third year or the fourth, we have about 70 tonnes that we went and gave it to

01:29any cow growers around here, farmers, because we didn't know what to do with it.

01:34And this is when we make a decision, we will spend the money, create a facility that will

01:38do something else with the fruit.

01:45At their pomegold factory in Manato, the family packs whole fresh fruit on one side, a market

01:52that has picked up since pomegranates started appearing on cooking programs.

01:57But this is a fruit with a relatively short shelf life, so any that aren't sold quickly

02:02can't be stored for long.

02:07So on the other side of the factory, the leftovers and second grade fruit are processed, revealing

02:14the pomegranates' distinctive juicy seeds known as arils, that are then frozen or turned

02:20into juice.

02:22The best way to drink the pomegranate juice is frozen.

02:25The hard thing is to tell the consumer that if you want a fresh juice, you go to the freezer aisle.

02:34New Shepperton in Victoria is another food processor that has invested heavily in pomegranates.

02:42Better known for its package fruit and beans, SPC has taken over the POM Life brand and

02:48processing arm of Australian pomegranate growers.

02:53One of the industry's big players.

02:55Our chairman is a very strong believer that pomegranates are a fruit of the future and

03:01possibly the next Smash Davo.

03:05It supplies punnets of fresh arils to the two major retailers, a product that takes

03:10the mess and effort out of pomegranates at a price.

03:14The fruit itself from the farm is not a high price, but when you look at the value add

03:20we can put into the fresh arils in the punnets, they're retailing for nearly $80 a kilo.

03:27So the margin is definitely there.

03:30But you're not making that yet?

03:32Not yet.

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