Botanica has made the choice to move from the inner west of Sydney to the NSW Central Western town of Cowra so that its raw ingredients can be juiced up to a week earlier.
Co-owners Richard Magney and Nadia Watson see the benefit in being closer to farmers and fresh produce, as there is a significant difference in how fresh juice tastes if there is a delay between produce being picked and juiced.
“There is also an unequivocal difference in the medicinal benefits when dark leafy greens are cold pressed within hours of harvest, rather than days,” Magney says.
“The antioxidant count is proven to be substantially higher when the chlorophyll is extracted from freshly harvested leafy greens.
“This is what we will achieve by locating our cold-pressed, high-pressure processing facility directly on the farm.”
Botanica, which launched three years ago, focuses on making boutique cold-pressed green juice using high-pressure preserving technology that the owners believe has the potential to revive and add layers of innovation to the NSW regional food manufacturing industry.
Buying at the farm gate means Botanica can purchase the produce supermarkets have rejected.
Magney says there is a strong argument that producers can take more risks in expanding their range if there is a local market for out-of-spec produce.
The idea of a processing plant on the farm doorstep helps Botanica sell the brand in a market that promotes ‘fresh is best’.
“We wanted to build a strong, traceable, provenance to our brand so that people know the juice comes from a certain region,” Magney told ABC Rural last month.
“To think we may soon place a QSR code on our bottles and trace the inputs directly back to the farmer, the location of their farm and potentially the time, date and weather conditions of harvest is very exciting for us”.
Cowra was the home of the old Edgells’ cannery, which canned peas, beans, tomatoes and beetroots and carrots in the 1940s.
The cannery had various incarnations before it closed its doors in 2013 as Cowra’s Windsor Farm Food Factory.
Magney and Watson see enormous potential in using the equipment to bring food processing back to the Cowra region.
High-pressure processing is a cold pasteurising technique where sealed products are subjected to a pressure chamber that stunts the growth of bacteria and pathogens.
“We were very excited to have the opportunity to re-ignite the Cowra brand and really create what we would call ‘a kitchen for Cowra.’” Magney said.
The duo plan to offer high pressure processing services to farmers, and hopes the business model can be replicated in other regions.
“Canberra Airport, only a short trip down the Lachlan Valley Highway from Cowra, is opening for export in September 2016, and having met the managing director, Stephen Byron, he is optimistic that fresh, clean, overnight agri-export out of Canberra into Asian cities is going to offer the region’s food processors and farmers significant uplift in export opportunities,” he said.
“Botanica shares this vision and can’t wait to participate in the prosperous export opportunities available.”
