Tomato growers vine up to new revenue streams amid dwindling supermarket presence

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Like many primary producers’ Australian tomato growers have watched their market share dwindle in recent years. As cheap imports taking up more room on supermarket shelves. In northern Victoria the number of tomato growers has almost halved. But those who've remained have started thinking outside the box for new revenue streams.

Transcript

00:00It's a staple ingredient for many Australian households, but the tomato industry is struggling.

00:08As a percentage basis, Australian product is only supplying possibly 20-30% of the entire

00:18demand that the Australian market has.

00:21These tomatoes are grown with the specific purpose of being turned into products like

00:25pasta sauces and canned tomatoes.

00:27But cheaper imports are hard to compete with and growers are leaving the industry.

00:32Over the last 10 years, that grower number has gone from about 12 active growing enterprises

00:40down now to about 7 growing enterprises.

00:43To combat this, an Australian processor is thinking outside the box.

00:48I'm not sure people will believe this, but we're actually extracting the tomato seed oil

00:52and it's going into the cosmetic industry.

00:55Tomato seed oil is used by skincare brands for products like moisturisers, oils and sunscreens.

01:01They've also found a way to profit from the skins that would normally be fed to livestock,

01:06drying it into a powder for use in products like pet foods.

01:10The goal is to utilise almost all of our by-product by 2027.

01:16With the fruit only making up 40% of the company's revenue, Mr Free says it no longer needs to rely solely on processed tomatoes.

01:25We need to get out there and start to proactively sell these other products that we've got access to.

01:30Keeping their skin in the game.

01:32The skin in the game.

01:34The skin in the game.

01:35The skin in the game.

01:36You

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