SOUTH WEST: A family-run orchard has gone through some tough times in its almost 100 years of operation.
An aptly named apple orchard has recognised the gravity of solidifying its Manjimup roots after experiencing some challenges in recent years.
Just a few years short of a century old, Newton Orchards has been operating on a farm on Graphite Road since 1929.
The business is one of the biggest apple growers in the state, supplying major supermarkets with more than 7,000 tonnes of fruit a year.
Run by a third-generation farming family, Newton Orchards is set to remain a Manjimup operation.
Newton Orchards co-director Nic Giblett said the determination came after a recent venture to open the business to outside involvement.
“We’re really committed and really proud of still being family owned and operated, and particularly so, in these changing times, with a lot of corporate entrance into agriculture, which I find quite unsettling,” she told Business News.
“I think that potentially can take out a lot of the authenticity and genuine passion in growing, if it’s sort of purely profit and prospectus motivated.
“Having had the foray into outside investment, and just finding that did not suit us, didn’t work out for us at all.
“Maybe we’re just better off being innocent, little country farmers, but that just suits us as a generational outlook.
“Just doing whatever we can to provide the absolute best product and service to our customers is what we’ll be doing going forward, to stick around for another couple of generations.”
Ms Giblett said the business took some time to reinvent itself, delving into growing avocados and cherries.
“We’ve been an apple grower, primarily, and we’ve also grown pears and different stone fruits,” she said.
“But over the years, we’ve had to put a lot more attention to detail into what’s profitable.
“We’re really acutely aware of our numbers now, and that means that you don’t just grow for the sake of growing.
“Every block has to prove itself and you can’t be sentimental about what you’ve done in the past.
“You have to be really ready to pivot.”
Even with the oversupply of avocados in Western Australia, Ms Giblett was confident Newton Orchards could find its niche in the markets.
Newton Orchards founders George and Harold Newton, circa 1929.
A significant shortfall in cherry production across the state in recent years has also affected the operation.
Ms Giblett said the past season for cherries had been “diabolical”.
However, she said Newton Orchards had refocused to export cherries to the Malaysian market.
“We’re working on a really good relationship we have with some Malaysian importers rather than being reliant on the domestic market, which tends to crash under over supply,” she said.
“It’s also difficult in Western Australia, because our cost of growing is quite a bit higher than the eastern states.”
Ms Giblett said growers had been expecting some assistance from the demand for cherries around Christmas.
“You’d think prices would go up, but they remained capped by the retailers because they brought in cherries from the eastern states and obviously the quality is not going to be as good because of the food miles and fumigation and everything that happens,” she said.
“That’s kind of disappointing that you can’t even rely on supply and demand to make up your shortfall in your short years.
“We will have cherries in future to a small sort of domestic portion, but most will be destined for Malaysia, where they’ll be willing to pay that consistent price for the quality that they demand.”
Industry challenges
There is a higher cost to grow fruits in WA compared with the eastern states, according to Ms Giblett.
She said carving out reasonable returns in the apple industry, which had become very commodified, was difficult.
“We do need to get higher returns than those guys [in the east coast], but we’ve just kept our levels to what our market can handle in terms of premium fruit,” she said.
“Our supply capability is all about exactly what the customer wants when they want, and of premium quality, food safety, eating, all of that.
“At some point you wonder where that’s going to get to, because apples are seen as fairly boring.
“We don’t demonstrate our versatility very well. We’re highly substitutable.”
The challenge was to raise the cap on what people were willing to pay for a kilogram of apples, Ms Giblett told Business News.
“For apples, $6 or $7 a kilogram, that will give you about seven apples that will last you all week, and apples gives you the same boost as a cup of coffee,” she said.
“Yet people think $7 is expensive for a kg of apples.
“[But] they’re more than happy to pay for five bucks, $5.50 for a cup of coffee that lasts five minutes, that’s not locally grown, that’s not healthy and all of that.”
It’s why diversification of the business was important for Newton Orchards, including starting a packing and labour service.
“We do a lot of contract packing for smaller growers,” Ms Giblett said.
“Again, it’s that offering, the attention to detail, and being willing to muck around with smaller amounts that the larger pack sheds down here might not be as interested in doing.
“For a grower, they can concentrate on what they do best, which is growing the fruit, and then we take care of all the other hassles for them.”
Bred in Manjimup
Newton Orchards started when Ms Giblett’s maternal grandfather and great uncle left England and bought land in Manjimup in 1929.
The land was acquired from Ms Giblett’s paternal side of the family.
When her father married into the Newton family, the Giblett clan became involved with their land again.
“We still have that home farm today. That’s where I grew up, and my dad still lives there,” Ms Giblett said.
“He recently completed his 60th apple harvest. He’ll probably keep going until he can’t.
“I came back when my kids were really little to raise them on the farm, and then my brother later came to do the same thing.”
Being a third-generation farmer in her family business, Ms Giblett knows the risks associated with the industry.
“Farming is just so hard … there’s no other word for it, with the levels of compliance and everything on top of what Mother Nature’s traditionally thrown at you,” she said.
“Now there’s the impacts of climate change as well.
“If you’re not really, really invested at heart, then it’s just not going to get done properly, and you won’t be there in the long run.
“It’s fine to have all this money flooding in now but we might turn around in 10 or 20 years and then … where are the people with the heart who actually have the skills and the knowhow and the investment to stay in long term?”
