Perfection Fresh (Aust)

Australia enters the pomegranate market

Australia's leading fresh produce marketing company, Perfection Fresh, will this week send its first commercial crop of Royal Pom® pomegranates to market as it moves to dominate both the domestic and imported pomegranate category.

Exclusive producer, PMG Agriculture proprietor Paul McLaughlin, said he was inspired to grow pomegranates after an international fact-finding tour.

"Australians are becoming more and more aware of pomegranates which are a fascinating, beautiful and delicious fruit which also give you a sense of wellbeing when you eat them," Mr McLaughlin, a fourth generation primary producer said.

"Once opened, Royal Pom® pomegranates look like a blossoming flower filled with juicy, sweet edible little arils. They are a good, average size fruit with a reasonably soft, appealing seed and the perfect balance of sweet and tart."

"In some cultures, they give pomegranates as gifts, like we would give a box of chocolates. That's how I would like to see pomegranates develop in Australia - a special, unique, sweet indulgence."

The crop, which preferred hot, dry Mediterranean-style climatic conditions, was planted nearly four years ago, he said.

"We planted four different varieties, then assessed their attributes and tested their antioxidant levels and found the Wonderful variety to be the best performing for our conditions," he said.

"Each hectare of the orchard has approximately 600 trees and each tree can potentially bear 25 pomegranates. From a growing perspective, pomegranates are quite labour intensive as the trees, which are grown on a trellis system, have to be pruned every four weeks to maintain their height and shape."

A non-climacteric fruit which does not ripen further after picking, Royal Pom® pomegranates are also taste-tested in the field prior to harvest and each fruit is clipped off the stem by hand. 

Perfection Fresh marketing manager, Lee Carnemolla, said Australia's first commercial crop, in-store until June this year, would complement Perfection Fresh's annual offering of Californian POM Wonderful pomegranates available from October to March.

"Australian consumers have become increasingly familiar with the Wonderful variety due to our successful import program of the past five years," Ms Carnemolla said.

"We can now offer consumers this superior-eating pomegranate - grown both locally and overseas - and expect to substantially increase consumer interest and sales in this category."

She said PMG Agriculture had 200 hectares of Royal Pom® pomegranates under cultivation in the Lachlan Valley near Condobolin, New South Wales, and would increase plantings in both NSW and near Tennant Creek, Northern Territory to 1,000 hectares by 2011.

Ms Carnemolla said Royal Pom® pomegranates would be available in the fresh produce department of Woolworths supermarkets nationally. She expected the fruit, sold loose, to retail for between $4 and $4.50 each.

Perfection Fresh's objective was to double the volume of pomegranates sent to market each year for the next four years as plantings progressively expanded, she said.

"We have been developing the market in Australia for the past five years - now we are realising the potential to supply pomegranates all year. 

"Pomegranates are somewhat revered in Asia, the Middle East and Europe and traditionally, pomegranates in Australia have been consumed for cultural and health reasons. However, we will generate wider consumer interest so pomegranates become part of people's daily diet as Australians increasingly seek out healthy food options."

Perfection Fresh would employ multi-media marketing strategies to promote the pomegranates, Ms Carnemolla said.

Glossy, bright red-skinned pomegranates are filled with edible arils containing polyphenols - some of nature's most effective antioxidants - which help protect the body against "free radicals", which can damage the body over time.