Growers aim to expand Australia's pomegranate market
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.