Sunshine Coast strawberry farm set to flourish
BEERWAH farm, Oz Strawberry was named one of 24 successful businesses to receive a Rural Economic Development (RED) Grant under ‘Round five’ of the Government program.
The strawberry enterprise will use the RED grant to expand their packing shed, build a cold room and purchase a compact track loader, creating up to five new jobs.
Overall, the fifth round of the RED Grants program has provided $3.9 million in funding and is expected to create up to 215 direct, long-term jobs.
The Oz Strawberry farm operation, was impacted by flooding in 2022.
It is now back on track, and set to complete their recently funded expansion project by mid-next year.
Oz Strawberry director, Ray Kim, said the farm produced more than 50 palettes a day. An expanded packing shed and new cold room would help keep more fruit fresh and allow the farm to supply even more strawberries to retailers, while also being able to employ more people.
“The previous packing shed was so small, so a lot of fruit had to sit outside until it could be packed which caused some strawberries to become soft and bruised. We’ll now be able to ensure more fruit will stay fresher,” he explained.
“The new compact track loader will also help us keep the farm tidy because we lose a lot of dirt after rain. We were especially impacted by this problem over the last couple years with flooding.”
Over five years, the RED Grants program has provided a total of $13.3 million in funding to support 59 successful regional agribusiness projects, worth more than $52.4 million and estimated to create over 2,500 new direct and indirect jobs.
The Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) administers the RED Grant scheme on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Grants are available for up to $200,000 with a 50 percent cash contribution requirement from applicants to fund projects which generate unique economic and employment opportunities related to primary production value chains across rural and remote Queensland.
Main image: Oz Strawberry’s Ray Kim
