Yamatji Fresh Produce is an exciting and unique horticulture joint venture between 4 Ways Fresh, Indigenous Business Australia and Yamatji Enterprises Limited. Yamatji Enterprises Limited approached 4 Ways to collaborate on indigenous horticulture opportunities in Geraldton. Yamatji Enterprises Limited also approached Indigenous Business Australia to co-invest in the development of land next to 4 Ways’ existing farm. All partners then agreed to develop a horticulture facility to grow cucumbers. This is how Yamatji Fresh Produce came into existence.
The farm is located on Bootenal Road, you can see it on the right-hand side as you drive past the Bootenal Tavern which is on the left of the entrance to the farm site.
As part of the joint venture, YEL, in partnership with our Trust Partner IBA, will fund the building of greenhouses on Yamatji-owned land, of which we will then grow cucumbers for 4 Ways Fresh. These cucumbers will be sold all over Australia in major supermarkets, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, and Costco. As part of the joint venture, the cucumbers sold will proudly have Yamatji branding front and center, so that customers buying the cucumbers know that it has been grown by Yamatji Nation. This is a significant project that will deliver strong economic benefit and social development outcomes for Yamatji People, including the opportunity to work and to develop further value add businesses from the farm.
To date, we have built 125 greenhouses, with 100 more to be built by December 2024, and another 75 to be built in 2025. 300 greenhouses will be built for Stage A of this project. There are also plans to build more greenhouses for Stage B and Stage C. For these stages, the land is already owned by Yamatji Nation as this is the same land used to complete Stage A. The financial return from Stage A of this project will bring about strong community reinvestment opportunities.
Planting of cucumber seeds will start in May 2024, with the first cucumbers to be harvested in July 2024. Much work has been done to progress the project to this point.
Yamatji Fresh
Cool information to know about the project:
Cucumbers are 90% water.
Each greenhouse holds around 9000 cucumber plants, with each plant producing 15 “sellable” cucumbers. With 300 greenhouses, this is a huge number of cucumbers.
The project will use 90% recollected rainwater, water condensation and other sustainable water sources to grow the cucumbers.
The project will grow three types of cucumbers. Continental; the long ones wrapped in plastic wrap in the shops. Lebanese; the short ones sold per kilo in the shops. Green; these are grown for the restaurant and cafe industry. Later, other vegetables may be grown including eggplants, tomatoes and capsicums.
There are up to 30000 fish, usually native species like silver perch, living at the bottom of each of the dams where water is stored for the plants. These fish provide good nutrients which act as a growth booster for the plants.
This project will be the largest cucumber farm in Australia and the southern part of the world. It is an important asset to Yamatji Nation, and it is important that Yamatji Nation People look after this asset by becoming involved with the farm and looking after it.