NORTH EAST AND GOULBURN MURRAY
Part of the Farmer Group Rural Newspapers Covering Victoria Published since 1986
JULY, 2018
SHEEP AND WOOL SHOW PAGES 20-23
www.farmernews.com.au
HENTY FIELD DAYS PAGE 28
FARM SAFETY PAGES 32-33
Treechange leads to a Beechworth world first
HIGH GROWTH: Gamila MacRury at her Beechworth property has planted 600 olive trees and developed a saffron crop – sown, grown, divided and re-planted each year – from an initial 800 corms (bulbs) to 50,000. PHOTO: Coral Cooksley
PRECARIOUSLY balancing on the top of a ladder, Gamila MacRury pauses midway through picking olives. It is harvest time – she hopes to ferment more than 2000 kilos this season - and her ringing phone is a distraction. It is a call from the North East Farmer, and, tucking the phone into her shoulder, Gamila begins to talk – recounting her story, picking olives as she goes. “You need to buy land in the country, that was the advice my mother always gave,” Gamila explains. “‘You’ll see another two recessions in your life’ – so I took her word, and here I am; on annual leave from one job to harvest for another.” Gamila is responsible for developing the first ever saffron-in-alcohol extract in Australia – a product she hopes to export to the world. But back in the beginning – she explains this without pausing for breath, the sound of olives gently dropping into her bucket – Gamila found a 12-acre plot in Beechworth. Inspecting it on a Saturday, she owned the block by the following Wednesday. That was nine years ago. Since then, she has planted 600 olive trees and developed a saffron crop –
BY RHYLL McCORMACK rmccormack@ nemedia.com.au
The really hard thing is actually selling saffron. You’re competing with imports that are $6-18 per gram, and that’s going against my product which is about $240 a gram. GAMILA MACRURY, WHO HAS DEVELOPED A WORLDFIRST SAFFRON EXTRACT. sown, grown, divided and re-planted each year – from an initial 800 corms (bulbs) to 50,000. “It’s been a long road – last year was my first real commercial success; so yes, it has been hard,” she said. Gamila is refreshingly honest when it comes to re-counting her farming journey.
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