Page 11 - Food&Drink March 2022

Since labelling laws changed in 2018, requiring companies to list the percentage of locally grown versus imported ingredients, there has been an active shift back to locally grown.
“We had an onslaught of brands coming to us wanting Australian ingredients and it made us look deeper into what we call a ‘basket of problems’ right across the industry. We asked why so many products in our food industry were coming from Asia and Eastern Europe. What we found became the driving force behind TUI,” he says.
“It was a mindset to not do things the conventional way, but to flip it on its head, break it, and then repair it in a new way that ensures clarity and visibility, allowing farmers to play further up the value chain.”
THE NEW FOOD CHAIN
Waltanna Farms is the centre of TUI Foods’ origin story. The farm not only grows the crops but houses its commercial facility and innovation centre TUI Labs.
The Lab will drive industry collaboration in rebuilding a functional food supply chain that benefits all, from the farmer to the consumer.
Waltanna Farms and TUI director Mike Nagorcka tells Food & Drink Business that scientifically backed R&D, combined with regenerative agricultural practices and engineering technology to cost- effectively scale up operations, is the future of Australian food nutrition and farming.
“If farmers don’t embrace innovation, we will be forever stuck in a rut, at the bottom of the value chain, giving more
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: TUI Foods directors Mike Nagorcka and Tony Cartwright at Waltanna Farms; regenerative farming is a key part of TUI’s model; Waltanna Farms is the centre of the TUI Foods origin story.
“ It is a mindset to not do things the conventional way, but to flip it on its head, break it, and then repair it in a new way that ensures clarity and visibility, allowing farmers to play further up the value chain.”
and more margin away, with no negotiation power,” he says.
Put simply, TUI has developed a new food chain model:
• a circular ecosystem providing
primary producers with extra
income streams,
• food brands with greater
ingredient traceability,
• consumers with insights into
where their food has come from, • new local and global markets
for Australian ingredients, and • regenerative agriculture
practices.
BY-PRODUCT TO PROFIT
The starting point for the trio is the 30 per cent of crops farmers
cannot sell because it is the wrong shape or size. Despite its nutritional value, this produce ends up as cattle feed or landfill.
Cartwright says, “We thought, what if we built a facility onsite that could take the by-product and turn it into a product the farmer could sell to brands looking for Australian ingredients. Ultimately it would provide producers with an extra income stream while also reducing the environmental impacts of large amounts of food going to waste.”
At Waltanna, the purpose- built facility features dehydration operations and
capacity to produce plant-based drinks. Historically the
farm has grown a lot
of cereals, oil seeds,
peas, beans, and a little
bit of fodder for the organic dairy industry.
For the last 23 years, it has been supplying flaxseed directly to one of Australia’s largest health food companies.
The business is now “stepping outside the square” by growing vegetables and cover crops.
TUI has developed ways to capture 100 per cent of vegetable crops such as broccoli and beetroot. From these, a
Serve up innovation in every bite.
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