d'VineRipe®

Giant d'VineRipe glasshouse looks to renewable energies

South Australian glasshouse tomato producer, d'VineRipe, would investigate the feasibility of generating renewable energy such as biogas by composting its own waste on-site instead of sending it to landfill, general manager Leon Maree said.

Mr Maree said it was d'VineRipe's medium to long-term objective to process more than 850 tonnes of green waste generated a year.

Stage 2 of the total $65 million, 17-hectare glasshouse development at Two Wells, north of Adelaide, will officially open next Tuesday, February 22. It will have the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of tomatoes a year - double the annual production output of the past three years.

"Doubling the crop capacity presents both a challenge and an opportunity. While the amount of green waste will more than double from 400 tonnes, this could potentially become a viable source of power in its own right," Mr Maree said.

"Right now, the tomato plants are removed from the glasshouse at the end of their growing cycle. Nylon twine and plastic clips within the plants render the waste suitable only for landfill. Our objective is to investigate how biodigesting - or decomposing the waste by reducing its weight and volume - could potentially produce a gas to replace the natural gas currently used to operate the glasshouse."

Mr Maree said the concept, in the early stages of development, would look at ways in which to separate green waste from other materials. It could also potentially save the business up to $70,000 a year in landfill fees, he said.

"This is a vast operation which, from an environmental perspective, operates efficiently using its own or locally available renewable resources," Mr Maree said.

"With Stage 2 operating, we require up to 520 megalitres of water a year to water the crop and cool the glasshouse. A proportion of that comes from rainfall captured on the glasshouse roof.

For every 10 millimetres of rainfall, the roof can now capture close to two megalitres. The rest will continue to be treated water drawn from the nearby Bolivar Water Reuse Project. That amount - up to 400 megalitres a year - will vary depending on rainfall, the time of year and the quality of water."

Mr Maree said d'VineRipe now had the capacity to store 10 megalitres of water in tanks and 70 megalitres in dams. Its evaporative pond capacity for waste water spanned eight hectares.

"In terms of d'VineRipe's operational requirements, sunlight, water and seeds are all sustainable resources. We're not relying on nature or a river system to meet irrigation needs and as long as we can secure long-term supply from a commercial point of view, we can offer greater pricing stability and operate as a sustainable business." 

Mr Maree said all key glasshouse infrastructure had more than doubled with the progression to Stage 2 with the world's best practices in high-tech design and operations incorporated into the development.

d'VineRipe's glasshouse is the largest operation of its kind in Australia to use pad and fad climate control technology - a factor determined by the climatic conditions of the Two Wells environment, Mr Maree said. It is the largest single tomato producer in South Australia, growing between 550,000 and 750,000 individual plants at a time, depending on the season.

"Other tomato glasshouses in Australia use screening or fogging technology or a combination of both. Our geographic location requires pad and fan technology to either reduce the temperature inside the glasshouse, increase the humidity, or both. The glasshouse now features a total of 384 cooling pads throughout, or 48 fans in every 1.22 hectare block."

He said key Stage 2 improvements made within d'VineRipe's packing facility included the implementation of an automated buffer - or queuing system - now able to hold several hundred trays of produce at a time as it approached new flow-wrapping lines, substantially increasing output.

"We have the capacity to process, on average, more than 200 tonnes of fruit a day from both packing and pre-packing lines. With up to 20 different products being processed at any one time and some 10,000 tonnes grown a year, that equates to an output of 10 million kilograms of fruit a year."

Mr Maree said Stage 2 developments also included an expansion of short-term cool storage space and some handling and transport efficiencies.

"We can now fill whole semi-trailers with produce, whereas previously we were not always able to achieve that."

d'VineRipe is a joint venture between Perfection Fresh and diverse investment company The Victor Smorgon Group.