We’re often asked about our Partner Farmers in Chile, Peru and Turkey: who are they? Have we been to their farms? Are they held to a high standard of organic accreditation? In this blog we catch up with Robbie - co-founder of oob organic along with his wife Shannon - to give us some history on oob organic’s Partner Farmer relationships, and answer those commonly asked questions.
The oob organic Partner Farmers story began, of all places, a decade ago at the local primary school in Matakana where Robbie and Shannon sent their three children. One of the teachers was Chilean and introduced Robbie to a Chilean grower who had spent time in NZ and had become a passionate advocate of organic farming. They kept in touch, and Robbie promised that he’d be keen on buying their fruit if he ever got to the point of needing it. “A few years later, after securing a contract with Foodstuffs and exhausting the NZ supply, we needed it!” says Robbie. “It’s been a relationship built over ten years and has expanded to more than just blueberries. We asked if they could grow organic strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries for us, which they duly did.”
Who are they? Our Chilean Partner Farmers are family-based, second-generation growers with three children. “Just like us!” laughs Robbie, “although their kids are younger than ours. Jorge and Segolene both work in the business, as do Jorge’s two brothers.” At 400 hectares, Jorge and Segolene’s organic farm is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and very impressive. “On one of my earlier visits, they had watch-towers overlooking the plants - blueberries had been discovered as a valuable fruit and the plants would get stolen in the night,” remembers Robbie. “Now the plants are fully grown and the watch-towers are empty.” When disaster struck in the form of a large earthquake in 2010, Robbie was pleased to be able to offer support. “It did lots of damage to the local township, including the church. oob organic donated funds to help rebuild the church which was a nice way of being part of their community.”
Have we been to their farms? Robbie visits Chile at least twice every year, staying with Jorge and his family at their home farm, where he’s treated to generous hospitality and delicious Chilean style barbecues. They live in the Maule region - where most of the oob organic fruit is grown - three hours south of Santiago. The land here is formed from river beds, which makes it quite rocky, as well as having volcanic soil rich in organic matter. Water comes from the Andes (which run the length of the country) and flows down to the plains. “Perfect conditions for growing organic fruit,” observes Robbie. “A combination of high sunshine hours, very dry summers and cold winters.” In recent years Robbie has enjoyed hosting our growers back here in NZ. “Last year we had a great time! They visited the legendary Fieldays down in Hamilton, and also enjoyed walking the Tongariro Crossing.”
It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. The scale at which this farm operates allows competitive pricing, and in turn, oob organic has provided guaranteed and growing demand for Jorge and Segolene’s produce. This has enabled them to invest heavily in the infrastructure they need - growing the fruit is an immense task in itself, employing hundreds of people, however, the processing side is equally demanding. It requires very expensive equipment to sort and freeze the fruit to the highest world standards. “It is my view that the Food Safety requirements in Chile are higher than here in New Zealand,” states Robbie. “Entering into the processing areas requires almost the same standards as entering a hospital operating room!”
Spin the globe to Turkey, where some of oob organic’s vegetables are produced. It’s more of a co-op style here, as each of the growers specializes in a particular vege crop. “It’s really important to us to build a strong relationship,” says Robbie. “Now that we’re dealing with supermarkets, we have to ensure that our quality is very high and that the supply never runs out. This can be tricky when you’re dealing with seasonal issues, weather events, and long shipping schedules! It’s really important to be in constant contact so we can work out what to grow and when to grow it.”
Robbie has just returned from a summer visit to our Turkish Partner Farmers, also taking the opportunity to check out the processing facilities south of Istanbul. “Turkey is one of the top five growers in the world for many products including apricots, cherries, quince, strawberries, apples, and pears,” he says. “Therefore they have a great infrastructure for processing our vegetables prior to shipping them to NZ.”
Why do we have Partner Farmers overseas instead of NZ? While oob organic grows and buys as much produce as possible from New Zealand, the demand for delicious, certified organic fruit and veges vastly exceeds supply. Though our climate and soils are ideal for horticulture (apart from mangos, they love the tropics!), there are several reasons why we can’t grow here. “The cost of land is increasingly expensive, especially where we are based,” explains Robbie. “It’s not viable to expand our current growing areas or to buy new land for planting. Also, the costs of running a small business in NZ are really high compared to other countries - the challenge for us is making horticulture profitable, without raising the cost to our customers.”
Are our Partner Farmers held to a high organic standard? Yes - all of them comply with the USDA Food Safety Standard and to a European Organic Standard. Both of these are globally recognized, essential as New Zealand auditors must be able to recognise the international standards before they will endorse products being sold here in New Zealand, or Australia. The standards are very high. “Organic accreditation isn’t easy,” Robbie admits. “It contains control points at every stage, from growing through to delivering the end product, and a very high level of food safety is included in the process. Therefore it is forbidden to use any chemical whatsoever, and there are strict testing regimes for verification.”
oob organic is audited annually, and subject to a random audit every three years, as is our Partner Farmers. We’re really proud of our Partner Farmer relationships and work closely with them to provide our customers with a delicious, affordable product that is guaranteed organic by the highest world standards.
