Premier Fresh Australia Quarterly Newsletter - Winter 2023 Edition

Message from the Group CEO

It has been a busy first half of the year at Premier Fresh Australia. No season comes without its challenges. The fresh produce industry has experienced a prolonged period of price deflation in vegetable categories such as tomatoes and capsicum, shortages in categories like bananas and significant increases in costs of production and operations.

As a result, our business has undertaken difficult decisions to improve costs and efficiencies to ensure a long-term sustainable future.

So, on that note I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to all our hardworking and dedicated employees across the group who continue to navigate these times with resilience and determination.

On the topic of our great people, we have also seen some fantastic achievements amongst our team members. Frank Frappa, Executive General Manager of International Sales, won the 2023 Hort Innovation Exporter of the Year Award, while Samuel Davies, Head Grower at Lancaster Farms, was named Protected Cropping Australia’s 2023 Young Achiever. We are extremely proud to see our teams efforts acknowledged and rewarded on a national industry level.

In Lancaster our new season crop of Gourmet and Roma tomatoes is planted and growing beautifully. Production is expected to commence in October.

In far North Queensland, Australian Banana Company saw the acquisition of D Farm, taking ABC’s banana crop to over 250 acres.

All of these efforts hail new possibilities for growth and sustainability in our dynamic and ever-evolving business.

On behalf of our Chairman and board, I congratulate and thank you all on your continuous hard work and efforts.

Group CEO Premier Fresh Australia

News & Events

Award Season

Hort Connections

This year Premier’s Commercial team attended 2023 Hort Connections – Australasia’s largest annual horticulture conference – held in Adelaide from June 5-7.

Thousands of suppliers, growers, industry partners and experts gathered to share insights for the future. The conference wrapped up on the final day with its main event: a gala dinner to present the National Awards of Excellence, which recognises superior growers’ achievements in various categories.

Congratulations to Frank Frappa, our Executive General Manager of Citrus, Grape, Avocado, Stonefruit, and International Sales, on winning the 2023 Hort Innovation Exporter of the Year Award, despite the challenging few years we’ve all had.

Metcash Expo

Natasha Rus, Category Manager represented Premier at this year’s Metcash Expo at the Gold Coast Exhibition centre. The expo attracts IGA store Managers from all over the country providing an opportunity to connect and discuss products and merchandising. The Premier stand was banana focused, complete with a big banana tree!

Protected Cropping Australia Awards

Congratulations to Premier’s Samuel Davies on winning the Protected Cropping Australia 2023 Young Achiever Award!

Samuel is our Head Grower at Lancaster Farms, Premier’s retractable greenhouse farming operation in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley. This is a well-deserved recognition for the work Samuel and the entire Lancaster team put in to run a truly sustainable farming operation, producing quality Gourmet and Roma tomatoes.

The Protected Cropping Australia conference was held in Brisbane from July 17-20, with the awards ceremony taking place on the evening of July 18.

Premier Fresh Australia recently launched a refreshed ‘Australia Banana Company’ brand which highlights the banana supply chain from farm to customer and will be showcased on a new banana carton soon to be released.

Our Farms

Lancaster

Lancaster Farms is Premier’s retractable roof greenhouse operation and outdoor farms in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley Region.

We had a busy growing season at Lancaster Farms across tomatoes, persimmons, pumpkins and melons, producing some amazing quality produce. There were some interesting varietal trials conducted across the season, including a range of different tomatoes and outdoor melons. This will continue next season and even include a greenhouse melon trial!

Our pull-out of last season’s crop was successful allowing us to clean the greenhouse ready for re-planting of our gourmet & roma seedlings well as a range of new trial varieties selected for their unique characteristics. In the coming season we will also be trialling the use of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program with the aim of reducing chemical usage.

New Season Prep

Darwin Fruit Farms

DFF spans a huge 369 hectares in Humpty-Doo, Northern Territory.

Up north, there’s no ‘winter’ as such - rather, this time of year brings the dry season, with less humidity but 30-degree daytime highs still common - “beautiful!” exclaims Farm Manager Mark Smith. However this year’s May was the second coldest since records began, while June was the second warmest.

Banana growth slowed up, giving the team some extra time for planting, which currently happens every two weeks, and will increase to once a week over September and October. These plants will come to fruition in time for next year’s dry season, helping to combat the usual lull in supply over this time.

Meanwhile, the DFF team has a new helper: Meg the 6-month-old Kelpie pup has been dispatching staff morale services bright and early every morning, and will likely soon add goose-chasing to her repertoire. She also loves riding around on the farm buggy!

ABC & IBFC

IBFC spans over 135-hectares of Cavendish banana crops while ABC is Premier’s banana packing facility, both located in Innisfail, Queensland.

2023 has been a wet year so far up at our far north Queensland farms. In contrast to other years, the usual cooler temperatures (15-25 degrees - cool by local standards) of May-August haven’t come, while rain has been plentiful. This makes great growing for bananas, which thrive in the wet and warm, and haven’t slowed up as they normally would over the dry season.

The rain will eventually ease off, allowing necessary paddock work and maintenance to be carried out in time for replanting, which happens annually around September-November, depending on weather.

At ABC’s C Farm, 12 acres are being prepped for replanting, and waterlines and irrigation are being checked at D Farm, while at IBFC 15 acres of crops will be renewed with the help of a water quality grant.

Meg, the Kelpie

DFF

Quality & Technical Update

Our Quality and Technical (QT) department has been busy as ever over the last 3 months, managing all things quality, compliance, food safety & more, supporting our varied supply chains. The team have delivered on numerous QT and product development projects to add value and are always looking at ways to innovate. The inaugural Premier Fresh Australia sustainability report is currently under development and nearing completion. Stay tuned…

Industry & Education Partnerships

EdApp Launch Quality

Since introducing the EdApp platform to guide staff training, the quality team have been creating new courses to aid in quality compliance training with ease.

EdApp is a paperless training initiative introduced by the Quality & Technical and HR teams to standardise quality compliance and work safety awareness.

The platform allows different modules to be completed by staff to build knowledge required for completing essential tasks, as well as retraining previously trained employees.

Trading Update

Winter in Melbourne

As we embrace the winter season, we are pleased to provide the seasonal delight that is the ever-popular local chestnut – one of the main attractions at our Melbourne market floor at this time of year. We even cook the nuts fresh for our customers.

While Australian stonefruit remains out of season, we are delighted to offer beautiful Californian stonefruit to our customers, with sweet donut peaches that are always a crowd-pleaser for customers.

In recent news, we were delighted to welcome our New Zealand kiwifruit partner NutriKiwi. Their recent visit to the market in Melbourne was an opportunity for them to connect directly with our customers and showcase NutriKiwi’s commitment to quality and sustainability. The highlight of their visit was the engaging lucky wheel, where participants won boxes of... Kiwifruit!

International Update

After a difficult start to the season due to weather, the grape harvest picked up with high volumes and good quality, concluding around late June. Overall the business performed well, exporting its largest volume to date - a total of 470 containers.

Meanwhile, citrus season is in full swing - Premier is currently exporting Navel oranges, Cara Cara, mandarins and blood oranges. Our International team will be off to Hong Kong in September for the annual Asia Fruit Logistica, one of the worlds largest fresh produce tradeshows.

Capsicums

What’s in Season

It’s winter… so think pies, roasted veggies, nuts and vitamin-rich citrus!

Chestnut s

Pumpkins(All)

Lemons

Mandarins(All)

Zucchini

N avelOranges

Health, Safety & Wellbeing

Get your mind fit for work!

Premier is committed to creating a mentally healthy workplace, ensuring you are supported and look forward to coming to work each day.

Our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), MindFit at Work, is an important tool that will support you with enhancing your wellbeing both at work and home.

The broad range of services provided by MindFit at work are available to all employees and include:

Counsellors & Support

• 24/7/365 instant access to Counsellors via toll free phone line, face-to-face sessions, or virtual/ video call

• Toll Free number: 1800 862 042

Specialist Support

• Manager Assist Coaching

• Family Assist

• LGBTQI Counselling and Coaching

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counselling

• Grief Counselling

• Counselling options in 30+ languages

Proactive skill development with awesome digital training content

• An array of short and comprehensive online training content focusing on mental healthcare for both employees and managers

Noticed a safety issue?

Premier is encouraging all workers to capture their safety observations and issues!

All employee information and activity on the Portal is confidential and Premier does not have access to this information.

Access & explore the MindFit at Work Portal today!

• Go to eap.mindfitatwork.com and click on the ‘New to the Portal’ link

• Enter Premier’s code - 564594

• Enter your staff registration email- please try your company email or your personal email

• Follow prompts- select your division and create a password

• You’re now set up and able to visit and explore the portal

Still having trouble creating an account?

Contact HRSupport@premierfresh.com.au

Would you like to see more Mental health & Wellbeing initiatives in the workplace? We would love to hear your suggestions!

Email HRSupport@premierfresh. com.au with initiatives you would be interested in participating in.

You will notice dedicated QR codes displayed across your site, inviting you to submit safety observations, hazards and near misses in real-time.

Reporting safety observations of any kind is an important preventative action that better equips yourself and the team to act quickly and resolve issues before a serious incident occurs. Let’s achieve best practice, go on… get reporting!

Don’t notice QR Codes displayed at your workplace? Contact HSW@premierfresh.com.au.

Our People

Meet a Work Mate

Sharon

Kleinhans, Quality & Technical Officer

What is your current role & what does it involve?

My current role is a Quality & Technical Officer in Far North Queensland at the ABC office, working closely with the Quality and Technical team in Melbourne. I visit the grower base for bananas in the Tully, Innisfail and Mareeba regions to conduct Quality Assessments on their packed product and provide advice on ongoing quality improvement measures. I also offer support to the grower base for their food safety audits and certification.

How long have you been working with Premier? What are some of the memorable moments in your career?

I commenced working for Premier at the beginning of January this year. Memorable moments during this time include meeting all of the Premier Banana grower base, building strong relationships with them and the wider team. Also visiting the Woolworths team in NSW on a customer visit.

What is your favourite aspect of your job? One aspect of my role that I enjoy is speaking with the growers on site and offering any suggestions to help them in the processing of their product.

What is your proudest moment at Premier?

My proudest moments would be seeing growers implementing some of the quality improvement measures I have recommended and seeing an improvement in quality during follow up visits.

What is the best advice you could give someone first joining Premier?

The best advice I would give would be to be prepared for a fast paced and dynamic environment, no two days are ever the same and Premier is an excellent business to work for.

What is one thing that your fellow co-workers would be surprised to know about you?

I grew up on a family banana farm in FNQ therefore I have a good background in the industry and knowledge of growing, harvesting, packing product and all the various processes involved.

What do you enjoy doing with your time outside work?

Outside work I spend most of my time taking my kids to various sporting events, I enjoy seeing them succeed and the social aspect with other families in the area.

What’s your favourite fruit or veg and why?

My favourite fruit would be watermelon. As the temperature and humidity is extremely hot in FNQ during summer nothing beats a slice of watermelon.

If you won the lottery, what would you do with your winnings?

If I won the lottery I would still continue to work, donate some of the winnings to charity, and share it amongst my friends and family.

Congratulations to...

Sam Mertikas, Oliver Samuel Mertikas was born on July 7th at 11:36am, weighing 3.45kg. Congratulations Sam on the arrival of your baby boy!

10

Children’s The Royal Hospital

Cyrus Le’Mont General Manager Lancaster Ripener Melbourne

Community Partnerships

Foodbank

Foodbank is a charity organisation dedicated to becoming ‘the pantry to the charity sector in Australia,’ fighting hunger by sourcing food for people in need.

Together, Premier and Foodbank help schools who have limited access to fresh fruit to ensure that their students have the opportunity to eat a wholesome, nutritious breakfast on a regular basis.

Woolies Wheels & Walks

Premier is delighted to continue its long-standing relationship with the Royal Children’s Hospital. Fresh produce is donated each week to the Children’s Cancer Care Kookaburra Ward for the kids and their visiting family and friends to enjoy.

On Friday 19th May, a 10 km charity walk from Brighton to Elwood and back was held as part of the ‘Woolies Wheels & Walks’ initiative. The goal of the initiative is to raise money for Tour de Cure (TdC) and Pankind to help fund their vital cancer research, support and prevention projects.

Premier sponsored the event with a donation of $10,000 and Premier’s Holly Neenan and Emilija Angeloska participated. The walk also provided a great way to meet people from our own as well as other industries.

Tanya Diep

Angelo Taranto

Natasha Trovato

Produce Handler Melbourne Sales Manager Perth 15 15 YEARS YEARS YEARS

YEARS YEARS

Staff Anniversaries

Mark Daunt

5 YEARS

Premier currently supplies oranges to Foodbank’s school program on a weekly basis.

Zucchini, Feta & Leek Gratin

Bursting with vegetables and comfort, this vegetarian recipe is one to have on rotation throughout the colder months.

Ingredients

• 100ml extra virgin olive oil

• 1/2 cup (35g) fresh breadcrumbs

• 2 leeks, thinly sliced

• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped

• 4 zucchini, 3 coarsely grated, 1 sliced into rounds

• 200g feta, crumbled

• 1 tsp dried chilli flakes

• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Method

• 1 egg

• 100g coarsely grated mozzarella

Caperberry Crush

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

• 170g marinated artichokes, chopped

• 100g caperberries, finely chopped

• 2 tbs flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1. Heat 2 tbs oil in a non-stick frypan over medium heat. Add breadcrumbs and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until golden. Set aside until needed.

2. Preheat oven to 180°C.

3. Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a frypan over low heat and add leek and 1/2 tsp salt flakes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until leek is very soft. Add garlic and stir for 2 minutes until softened.

4. Place grated zucchini in a clean Chux cloth and squeeze out excess liquid over sink. Combine in a bowl with cooled leek mixture, feta, chilli, lemon zest and egg. Lightly season. Spread into a 22cm baking dish.

5. Toss sliced zucchini with remaining 1 tbs oil and layer on top. Scatter with mozzarella. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden.

6. For the caperberry crush, combine all ingredients in a bowl. Spoon over gratin and scatter with breadcrumbs to serve.