Author: Brigid Veale

Costa’s Perino Tomatoes and Coles are partnering to raise funds for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation (SAKGF), helping children form positive food habits for life.

Until Tuesday 16 February 2021, for every punnet of red or gold Perino Tomatoes 200g sold, five cents will be donated to the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, with the aim of raising up to $100,000.

Perino Tomatoes are 100% Australian grown by Costa, in glasshouses located in Guyra in New South Wales, and exclusive to Coles.

Senior Grower Manager at Guyra Tal Kanety says the premium quality and taste of Perino Tomatoes is the result of a flawless growth environment and process, and the reason why they are such a hit with kids and adults alike.

“Every plant is pollinated, trained and nurtured by our dedicated teams by hand. Our tomatoes are ripened on the vine, which means they reach optimal sweetness,” he said. 

The SAKGF is an education-based food program founded by renowned Australian chef Stephanie Alexander AO.

“Perino tomatoes are delicious and fun bursts of goodness and we are delighted that this donation will help us continue our work of supporting over 2000 schools and early childhood services across Australia helping students experience to growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing fresh, seasonal and delicious food,” Stephanie said.

This latest initiative forms part of Coles three-year partnership with the SAKGF, providing thousands of children across Australia access to a food education program that helps them develop a healthy relationship with food, self-confidence and life skills.

More than 2,000 schools and early learning centres around Australia currently participate in the SAKGF, reaching around 250,000 children and their families each year.

To learn more about the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation, click here to visit its website.

For university students Tarun Mills and James Bhorla, picking blueberries over the summer break is the perfect way to earn extra money to fund their studies.

Tarun, who grew up in Woolgoolga, has just finished his fourth year in medicine at the University of New South Wales and is now in his third harvest season at Costa Berries in Corindi.

“I started picking here in the 2017 summer holidays. I don’t have a lot of time to work when I’m at uni so this is a good opportunity to earn money.  It’s a great environment to meet lots of people,” Tarun said.

“This is my fourth year picking.  When I first started it was hard work, but you can make decent money. You have it put the effort in but it’s definitely worth it. The environment is really good here.

“I like working outside and working with my hands which I don’t get to do when I’m at uni.”

Tarun said the holiday job helped support him throughout the year.

“I was hoping to come back for one more season, but I’ll be doing a placement next year so this might be my last one unfortunately,” he said.

James, who also went to Woolgoolga High School, has just finished his third year studying radiography at the University of Newcastle. This is his fourth season picking at Costa.

“Doing uni you don’t get much time during the year so it’s difficult to get a job. Working here means I also get to come home,” he said.

“You get to be outside and active and you get to meet really interesting people and learn about their experiences. It’s pretty fun.”

James said the flexibility also enabled him to work around uni placements and being paid according to how much you pick was motivating.

“It’s a good amount of pay to get you through the year. It is just a really good experience and I would encourage people to give it a go.”

It’s official! Costa has launched Mush-Boom nationally, a consumer-facing advocacy brand created to encourage Australians to eat more mushrooms.

Our locally grown Aussie mushrooms can be found in major and independent retailers across Australia.

The Mush-Boom website is loaded with quick and easy, delicious and nutritious summer recipes which will inspire you to add some mushies to your summer barbie.

A new trial led by the Costa Farms and Logistics team will see Costa Fresh Produce Boxes, filled with apples and bananas, delivered to 60 Caltex-Ampol service stations across Victoria on a weekly basis.
 
Joseph Borg, National Business Development Manager, Vertical Farming, said the trial launched this week was the result of an identified need to provide fresh fruit into the petrol and convenience market segment.

“While Victoria was locked down with COVID restrictions, we were able to complete the preparations for launch in readiness for when Victoria reopened,” Joseph said.

“This has provided Costa with an opportunity to diversify its customer base and establish a new platform for healthy snacking produce.

“It has also provided an opportunity for us to build different internal packing capabilities at Derrimut to meet the needs of new customers and their requirements.”

The trial has involved a cross-collaboration between Costa Farms and Logistics, the National Food Safety and Quality team and Vertical Farming.

“We have had a great team working on this project, with a strong focus on quality control to ensure we can provide the best quality fruit.

“This provides a prime opportunity to tap into the snacking platform.  Once we get through the State trial, if it is successful, we will look at the national opportunities and hopefully extend it to other produce lines.”

Today the Costa board publicly announced the appointment of Sean Hallahan to the position of Costa Group CEO and Managing Director, to take effect from 31st March 2021.

Announcing the appointment Costa Chairman, Neil Chatfield said: “Sean’s appointment is the culmination of a rigorous global executive recruitment search which included both internal and external candidates, following the notification by current CEO Harry Debney of his intention to retire from a full-time executive role.”

Read the full announcement.

The Coffs Coast Focus Magazine caught up with Andrew Scheuer, Horticultural Manager at Costa’s Berry Farm in Corindi on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Take a look at his story.

Costa and Melbourne Polytechnic are leading the way in the development of workplace training technology to provide an enhanced training experience for more Victorians.

Mushroom harvesting is a skilled job that requires speed, agility, manual dexterity, and the ability to quickly identify when the produce is ready to be harvested and when it is not.

The challenge facing the Costa Group, Australia’s largest mushroom grower, and Melbourne Polytechnic a leading Victorian vocational training provider, was to develop a state of-the-art training tool that reduced staff turnover, improved harvest productivity, reduced wastage and ultimately resulted in the highest quality mushrooms being harvested.

Virtual Reality offered a training solution which could be adapted to the particular requirements of mushroom harvesting before a trainee was required to pick a live mushroom. From this basic concept came the Virtual Reality Harvester tool.

Starting with a ‘virtual’ bed of mushrooms, designer Liminal VR set about working with Costa and Melbourne Polytechnic on developing a training experience that would allow trainees to build their knowledge on the correct size of mushroom to harvest, the best cutting technique, the sorting of different types and sizes of mushrooms into packing boxes, disease identification and hygiene control.

The Victorian Government’s Workforce Training Innovation Fund administered by the Department of Education and Training was the perfect program for building a VR tool and increasing the opportunities for Victorians from all walks of life to gain employment in horticulture.

Take a look at our video.

The Costa Berry Category is supporting a Horticultural Innovation Australia project to develop new technologies and practices to improve pollination in protected cropping environments.

Costa is coordinating experimental trials in collaboration with the University of New England (UNE) and has created a new technical position, filled by Maria Manrique, to collect and report on trial data.

The research is funded through a $4.7 million-dollar grant, awarded under Round 4 of the Rural R&D for Profit program by the Department of Agriculture. It aims to improve and advance innovative methods of mechanical pollination to achieve pollination artificially and increase insect pollinator efficacy and pollination by improving the performance of honeybees under covers.

The project follows on from earlier research undertaken at the Costa farms in Corindi and Far North Queensland that has been examining the effectiveness of honeybees and stingless bees in pollinating blueberry flowers.

Maurizio Rocchetti, Senior Horticulturist – Blueberry Lead, who is coordinating Costa’s input into the project, welcomed the ongoing research partnership with UNE.

“This research will help to ensure we can continue to optimise our crops and ensure effective pollination rates under protected cropping,” Maurizio said.

Maria Manrique, who has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture from the University of the Philippines, has been employed as a horticulturist – research and development technician for the project, which will run until September 2022.

Maria has worked with the Costa Berry Category and the Costa Tomato Category since 2017.

Maurizio said the trials would relate to the optimisation of pollination within protected cropping environment, including the evaluation of protected cropping on pollen viability of different berry crops and varieties; stingless beehive manipulation in order to achieve pollination during winter months under tunnel production; and evaluation of possible mechanical pollination as alternative to insect pollination.

Costa will also be providing in-kind support for the project, in resources and equipment.