A West Australian farming couple say social media has allowed them to supply fresh produce to customers in remote areas. Chloe and Tore Licciardello have an orchard in Donnybrook in south west WA.
The couple run a business delivering boxed fruit and vegetables with produce from their own property and surrounding farms. Mr Licciardello said the business originally started with deliveries to a nearby regional city, Bunbury.
Mr Licciardello said there has been growing demand for farm direct produce and they now deliver regularly across the South West and to parts of the Wheatbelt regions as well. But he said they have had growing contact with people in the north west Gascoyne and Pilbara regions, with customers frustrated by limited choice. He says that using social media as a simple tool to take orders and coordinate deliveries has empowered them.
He said selling direct online has given he and his wife control over quantities, sizing and pricing.
"We like to be the farmer - the grower - and the pack house," he said.
"We started doing the Bunbury area and as the popularity grew, people who were friends of people in the Bunbury area on Facebook saw what we were offering. They asked if they could get our produce sent to their town, so they started their own page and from there it just grew."
The fruit and vegetable boxes combined cost $125, including transport cost.
