Author: Brigid Veale

Tammy Degroot has done pretty much every job at the 9 Mile Berry farm in Tasmania, putting her in prime position to take on the role of Blueberry Farm Manager.

The first female to manage a farm within Costa’s Australian Berry Category, Tammy said she was excited about the opportunity.

Tammy, who lives in Penguin with her family, started with Costa in 2010 when the third stage of the 9 Mile blueberry farm was being planted.  She had previously been working a number of jobs including in hospitality, running the canteen at her sons’ school, and at a chicken farm.

“Our own farm overlooked the blueberry farm and I had watched the farm expanding so I thought I’d give it a go.”

After two years Tammy moved into a supervisor role and for the last four years she has been managing the harvest operations.

“There isn’t anything on this farm I haven’t done.  I like all aspects of the blueberry farm and just really enjoy coming to work.

“For a number of years I have been working towards this role.  When Rob Saggus moved here to Tasmania from the Corindi Berry farm he saw the potential in me and has been guiding me,” she said.

Cameron Folder, Tasmanian Regional Manager, congratulated Tammy on her promotion.

“Tammy’s experience equips her well for this new challenge and I am especially pleased that Tammy has been able to progress through the business to take this position,” he said.

Rob Saggus, who was the previous farm manager, has moved into the role of Raspberry Farm Manager.

Rob has also been a long-standing employee having worked for Costa for 25 years, working his way from fruit picker to irrigator to operations manager in Corindi before moving to Tasmania to lead the blueberry team for the past five years.

Leaving your wife and five children to work in Australia is not easy, but for Leonard Ale it’s worth the sacrifice to help realise his dream.

Leonard is one of the many thousands of people who come to work in Australia from the Pacific Islands, through the Federal Government’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility program. He has just arrived in Australia for his second placement with Costa Berries in Corindi.

Leonard’s goal is to make sure children in his Solomons Islands community have access to education and one day have the chance to become the country’s future doctors, teachers and members of parliament.

Leonard has been instrumental in building the Mount Beata Community Primary School, situated outside of the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara.

With money earned during his first stint in Australia he was able to donate $2000 (the equivalent of more than $10,000 Solomon Island dollars) to the ongoing development of the school.

It is supported by the Seventh Day Adventist Church, which provides teachers. The school, which has classes for prep through to Year 6, now has 154 students.  Mojo Surf, which provides accommodation for seasonal workers in Arrawarra, also made a donation to the school last year.

“There are not many primary schools in the Solomon Islands and people can’t afford to pay.  The main reason I came here to Australia was to help the school. It’s not just for my wife and children, it’s for the nation as well,” he said.

“My dream is to one day build another classroom and staff facilities,” Leonard said.

Leonard first came to Australia in October 2021, working at the Corindi Berry farm in maintenance and the packing shed.

While he’s in Australia, Leonard’s wife looks after the family piggery and cares for the children.  Despite having to leave his family, Leonard said he was grateful for the opportunity to work in Australia.

“I really appreciate the Australian Government and the Australia people because in my country there is no opportunity for jobs.”

Leonard said while there were a lot of university qualified people in the Solomon Islands, many could not find employment.

Through the PALM scheme, approved employers can recruit workers for seasonal jobs for up to nine months or for longer-term roles for between one and 4 years in unskilled, low-skilled and semi-skilled positions.

The PALM scheme is designed to help fill labour shortages in rural and regional Australia. It allows Pacific and Timor-Leste workers to take up jobs in Australia, develop their skills and send income home. Under the Scheme there are a range of requirements and regulations relating to accommodation and transport.

“I am here to work and Australia is such a beautiful and peaceful country. The people here are very friendly and welcoming.”

Costa’s African Blue business has been operating in Morocco since 2007 and now has circa 465 hectares of farms coming from both own farms and third-party growers.

In a strategic move to broaden African Blue’s market reach and extend seasonal supply of blueberries to its customer base, African Blue has licensed Costa varieties to growers within Southeast Africa (South Africa and Zimbabwe and Zambia) to create a counter-seasonal supply of blueberries to African Blue, Morocco.

One of these licenced projects is managed under a Zimbabwe based company Direct from Source, in which 11 growers are aggregated to supply fruit to be marketed by African Blue to its Asian and European customers.

Located close to the capital of Zimbabwe, Harare – the growers, through Direct from Source, are responsible for around 15% of the total annual African Blue sales volume.

Costa’s licenced growers were among some of the first blueberry growers in the region, with the first plantings in 2018. This grower group now has farms covering over 300 hectares, with currently adopted varieties of Kirra, Akala, Corindi Verdure and Arana.  Arana is shaping up as grower favourite with capacity to service the Asian market with a premium product and higher price returns.

The farming locations in Zimbabwe have a similar climate and latitude to Far North Queensland, Australia (where Costa has a significant blueberry operation geared towards early season production).

For this reason, there are lot of opportunities that stem from blueberry variety development from the Costa Variety Improvement Program (FNQ), with a high chance that varieties developed from this low latitude program will be high performers for Zimbabwe in the future.  In the next three years the farmers will progressively take up some of the new Costa varieties: Breeze, Delight, Eterna  and Cascade.

Each of the farms has its own pack shed, and fruit is sent to market destinations via either air or sea freight logistics.

Berry International Horticultural Manager Greg Murdoch said the aim was to have fruit from this region in the period from August to October, following on from the Moroccan growing season which ends in June.

“The international blueberry market price increases around August to September and our main competition comes from Peru.  We focus on supplying quality, premium fruit and we aim to maintain very good quality control,” Greg said.

Deon Kirstein, who previously worked in the berry industry in Coffs Harbour, is now based in Zimbabwe and manages the grower support function in that region.

 

 

Costa Group Holdings Limited, Australia’s leading grower, packer and marketer of fresh fruit and vegetables, has released its 2022 Sustainability Report.

Our Report provides key data on our actions across our 10 Sustainable Commercial Farming principles and includes metrics relating to water use and water efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption and production.

For the first time, we have quantified our waste streams across our geographically diverse farming operations. This is a significant step towards our goal of minimising waste to landfill and creating a circular, closed loop waste management system.

Our Report also includes our actions in areas including biodiversity, community, workforce, climate change and production yield.

Key highlights include:

• Costa is a member of the Australian packaging Covenant Organisation and is on track to meet the 2025 targets.
• More than 60% of our waste is mulched, recycled or reused by third parties.
• Four sites producing solar energy including a new floating solar array.
• 437 tonnes of produce donated to Foodbank in 2022 – the equivalent of 862,600 meals.
• New technology for tree crop mapping and yield forecasting.
• Expansion of protected cropping.
• Irrigation sensing technology to optimise water use.
• Support and assistance for local communities.

Read our Sustainability Report 2022

Costa Tomato Exchange has initiated a Well Grown Community Grants Program to provide support for community organisations within the Guyra and Armidale regions.

We are inviting not-for-profit community organisations, sporting associations and schools to register their interest for support through our 2023 Grants Program.

Organisations seeking funding for 2023 will need to complete our Expression of Interest form by 5pm, Monday, February 20, clearly outlining how they meet one or more of the Eligibility Criteria.

All applications will be assessed and the grant funding will be allocated to those deemed most suitable.

Find out more.

Cathy Chambers’ love of learning and willingness to take on new opportunities have helped drive her career success.

Cathy is the first female general manager to be appointed within the Costa operations.  The Costa China farms grow blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in the Yunnan Province in southern China, and employ more than 200 permanent local staff, five expatriates, and more than 3600 casual and seasonal workers.

Cathy, who took on the role in June this year, said her key focus was continuing to drive the success and growth of the China business.

“I’m obviously very excited to be involved in a rapidly growing business.  In just seven years, we have grown from one farm of 25Ha to seven farms spread across three different regions with around 400 planted Ha.  And we intend to keep expanding at a similar pace.  It takes an amazing and resilient team to sustain this kind of growth: developing a new farm each year, while successfully managing ever-larger operations, and for the last three years, all during a global pandemic.  It’s a privilege to work with them,” Cathy said.

“Another key goal is to deepen the connections between our China business and the Australian operations.  This has been tough for the last three years because of COVID travel restrictions and quarantine requirements.  But once that changes, I look forward to regular visits, so we can exchange knowledge, experience and ideas much more effectively. I will also ensure that we continue to promote our integration with the local communities here in China.”

Cathy brings to the role a wealth of experience in a range of fields.  She started her career as an electronics technician, working for the Department of Defense at the Garden Island Dockyard in Sydney. From there, Cathy moved into technical writing, project management, training design, computer based training development, a brief period in recruitment and technology product advertising, and later into roles including Operations Manager and Marketing Manager with Scientific Management Associates, a private company involved in integrated logistics support.

In 2006, Cathy and her husband decided to give up the city life in Sydney, moving to a rural property at Halfway Creek (situated between Grafton and Coffs Harbour).

“We basically decided to retire early and enjoy our tree change.  We didn’t plan to look for work but would take opportunities if they came along.  After a period of time, a neighbour who was working at the Costa Berry farm at Corindi told me there was some work going and I started there working in recruitment and helping with inductions,” Cathy said.

That role led to various other work with Costa, starting with the Variety Improvement Program (VIP), which develops new blueberry varieties and licenses them around the globe.

Cathy continued to take on new opportunities and challenges, developing a deep knowledge of the Costa business and earning her stripes working up the ladder from administrative roles, to project leadership and management roles.

In 2016, Cathy took on the role of IP, Licensing and Administration Manager for Berries International, which includes the berry farms in China and Morocco. Again demonstrating the breadth of her ability, Cathy’s role was expanded to incorporate international human resources and safety functions in 2019.

In June of 2022, Cathy was appointed General Manager of the Costa China operations.

“I’ve had a long association with the China team, with regular short-term visits plus a period of around five months as acting General Manager,” she said.

“It’s a challenge for anyone to relocate to a new country and adapt to a new culture, but my earlier experiences helped me prepare for the leap.”

Making the move in the middle of the COVID pandemic posed additional challenges, with a total of six weeks full and partial quarantine before she was able to settle into to her new home.

And with China taking a zero-tolerance approach to COVID, there are still a number of challenges including health and travel code requirements, numerous checkpoints to navigate, and regular PCR testing before travel within the country.

Despite the hurdles, Cathy is extremely positive about both her role and the China business.

“I have always had a place in my heart for the China operations. It’s a great team and a great business, and there are huge opportunities here given the demand for fresh, healthy berries”.

“I have always felt very welcome here. I have found all the people I interact with are very kind and open, and it’s an enjoyable culture to work in.”

Cathy said she was grateful to be given new opportunities and that her skills have been recognised.

“The opportunities are there if you are willing to take a chance. My whole career has been driven by a love of learning and an insatiable curiosity. I have had plenty of opportunities, and I have been blessed to have the ability and willingness to pursue them. You need to believe in yourself and have the confidence to try new things.”

She said her mother, only the second woman to be accepted into a degree at Cambridge University in England, who then went on to get her Master’s degree in science and work in metallurgy research, was also an incredible role model.

As Costa’s first female general manager, Cathy is hopeful she too can provide inspiration, but not just for women in agriculture.

“Diversity isn’t only about objective, measurable things like gender, ethnicity , age etc.. It’s also about backgrounds, experiences, communication styles, intellectual diversity and so on.  People are the most important part of our business and wide diversity brings real riches to any organisation.”

Costa has been subjected to a malicious and sophisticated IT phishing attack.

The attack occurred on 21^st August 2022 and an intensive recovery and detailed review in conjunction with external IT security consultants of the incident commenced from this date.

As a result of this we have now established that access to data was confined to a single server at the Costa Corindi (NSW) site, which holds data for the berry category, and that only approximately 10% of the data on the Corindi file server was accessed.

These protective actions slowed operations, requiring the use of manual workarounds at certain sites and delayed some deliveries.  The impacts have largely subsided as we have restored the majority of our network and systems and there was no loss of data, and no material impact to operations, or earnings.

Although only approximately 10% of the data on the file server was accessed it is not clear what specific data was accessed due to the hacker encrypting their downloads.

Much of the information that was stored on the server is not personal information, however there is a risk that personal sensitive information of workers on Costa’s Australian berry farms may have been accessed.  To date, there is no evidence that any personal information has been leaked or uploaded to any sites.

This includes employees directly hired by Costa’s berry category since 2013 or provided by labour hire organisations since 2019.

This sensitive information may include the following:

• Passport details
• Birth Certificate
• Travel documents
• Australian Citizenship Certificate
• Bank details
• Superannuation details
• Tax File Numbers (TFN)

This information was collected in the first instance to satisfy certain laws relating to the employment of citizens and non-citizens and has been retained as per relevant record retention requirements.

Costa has notified the relevant authorities of this attack, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Costa has taken steps to protect against any further malicious attack, including limiting traffic to servers, increasing the level of end point protection and scheduling additional employee training relating to phishing and social engineering practices.

To minimise impact to individuals from the attack, we have been and continue to conduct continuous monitoring of the dark web to detect if any information from the server has been posted.

We can confirm to date, that we have not identified the publication of any such information.

We recommend that people who may be affected take precautionary measures to reduce the risk of their data being used unlawfully.

Examples of such measures include:

• Notifying your bank about the incident to ensure that extra checks are done by your bank.
• Notifying your bank/financial institution of any suspect transactions.
• Notifying your telecom provider to ensure they make you aware of any requests to redirect your phone calls/messages to reduce unauthorised attempts to bypass multi-factor authentication.
• Obtaining periodic credit checks to monitor for suspicious activity. Further information on credit checks can be obtained at https://www.idcare.org/fact-sheets/credit-reports-australia.
• Changing your email passwords.
• Enable Multi Factor Authentication on any sensitive accounts you may have such as banking and financial institutions.
• Changing any PIN/password for accounts that includes part or all of the data that may have been accessed (eg. Birth date in password, street address in password etc.).
• Notifying the Australian Federal Police if you suspect you have been subject to identity theft.
• Contact the Australian Taxation Office Client Identity Support Centre if you suspect the misuse of a TFN.

Costa Group Interim CEO Harry Debney noted –

 “This is a malicious attack, which was sophisticated in its execution.  Our first concern is for the impact this may have on our current and former employees.  With this firmly in mind, we continue to do everything we can to minimise any adverse consequences and to strengthen our cyber security protections.  I can also confirm that no core business applications were accessed, nor was any customer or supplier data comprised by the attack.”

Costa understands that what has occurred may cause concern and uncertainty, which is why we have set up a dedicated number to contact for any potentially impacted workers who may have questions or concerns about this incident.

The number is 1300 282 470 and will operate for the next month from the date of this statement.  It is available to contact Monday to Friday, between the hours of 9am to 5pm (AEDT).  If dialling this number, please select option 1.

Queries can also be emailed to cybersecurity@costagroup.com.au

We sincerely apologise to any one affected and are committed to minimising the impacts of this event and ensuring that similar events do not occur in the future.

General enquiries about this statement contact Michael Toby: +613 8363 9071

A project to commemorate Frank Costa AO and contribute to biodiversity across Costa farms has started, with trees planted at our farms in the Sunraysia region.

The project grew out of Costa’s inaugural Sustainability Prize and the Well Grown Seed Fund, which encourages people across the business to submit their ideas for sustainability projects.

Chris Potgieter, Agricultural Technician in Mildura, proposed an idea that each site or office in Australia should plant one to three trees each year in honour of Frank Costa AO. The idea was that trees could be planted each year to recognise everything Frank has done for the fresh produce industry and all Costa employees. It was also a way to increase biodiversity across the Costa sites and create awareness of the importance of trees.

This week, three trees were planted at the Colignan Farm and three at the Trentham Farm, with a plaque commemorating Frank Costa with the words ‘Planted in memory of Frank Costa AO, a champion of the people. Greatly admired and respected within Costa Group and the fresh produce industry’. The trees are Lophostemon Confertus – an evergreen, a conscious selection in honour of keeping the memory of Frank Costa AO alive year round.  

Tree planting programs are now planned for other Costa sites, including Nangiloc and the tomato glasshouses in Guyra.

Frank Costa passed away on May 2, 2021. He is remembered as a champion of the people, living by the mantra of ‘hire for character, train for skill’.

Costa Group, Australia’s leading grower, marketing and producer of fresh fruit and vegetables, has issued an urgent plea for the Albanese Government to prioritise export market access for horticultural products into key markets.

Sean Hallahan, Costa CEO and Managing Director, said lack of access to key markets, especially Japan for Australia’s avocados was affecting the entire industry.

“It is vitally important for the new Albanese government to prioritise export market access for horticultural products into key markets, most prominently Japan,” Mr Hallahan said.

Japan imports huge volumes of avocados principally from South America, and small volumes from Western Australia. The majority of Australian avocados are however grown in Queensland, which is prevented from exporting to Japan due to Queensland Fruit Fly.

“A whole of government approach is urgently needed to gain access to Japan for eastern seaboard (QLD/NSW) grown avocados. If this can occur, then together with the access Western Australia currently has to Japan, it will provide Australian avocado growers an opportunity to supply the Japanese market on an almost year-round basis, something that no other country can do,” he said.

“Disappointingly, this is an opportunity that through lack of urgent action from government continues to go begging. I encourage both the Federal Agriculture and Trade Ministers to work together to address this issue as a matter of absolute urgency for the greater good of the avocado industry, and the economic sustainability of regional and rural communities where avocados are grown.”

Mr Hallahan said other countries, including Peru, Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Canada, Mexico and the United States had successfully gained access to China and other south east Asian countries for their fresh produce.

“The common denominator at play here appears to be that these countries take a whole of government approach to trade access negotiations.”