Vegetable entrepreneur Andrew Bulmer is a spinach enthusiast, promoting the health benefits of this versatile vegetable. He has developed the family business into one of the biggest growers of leafy greens in Australia, and he was named 2017 Australian Farmer of the Year.
Over the past year, consumers are driving up demand for fresh spinach, in part for its high iron levels. The total volume of the Australian crop was 37,000 tonnes in 2018, which is up about 20 per cent in a year. But Australian production is falling short of demand because it is a tricky vegetable to harvest.
It can grow year-round in Gippsland's Mitchell Valley, but it has to be picked at night or the leaf size gets too big to meet supermarket specifications. Harvesters work in all conditions and have to cut the spinach very close to the ground.
"We basically use a bandsaw blade — like you'd find in a butcher's shop — attached to harvest machinery and you mow it off," he said. "You've only got a few millimetres that you're playing with, between contacting the soil and picking the product at the right length."
The Bulmer farm has struggled with labour shortages, and now sources 60 per cent of its staff from all over the Pacific and South-East Asia. Despite the shortfall in local workers and the increase in the award wages for casual staff, Bulmer is optimistic about the future.
"The growth's been really good over the years, but we still lag behind other parts of the world when you look at household penetration," he said.
