In 1998 Ana Aloma was shopping in the organic section of Foodtown in Kelston, Auckland.
“I bought Purefresh Organic veges and, after eating them, decided I wanted to work for this company. I pestered them until they agreed to see me. Sales of organic produce were low and they couldn’t afford to pay a full-time person, but if I was going to become a greengrocer, it had to be in organics, so I offered to work three weeks for free, and started the following Monday.”
That was seventeen and a half years ago. Ana is now the general manager of Purefresh Organic.
Purefresh is the organic arm of Fresh Direct, a fresh produce wholesale company started in 1996 by Peter and Jeffery Turner of Turners and Growers. They wanted to continue as a New Zealand family business when Turners and Growers was sold (the well-known New Zealand company grew from a fruit auction business started in 1897 by Edward Turner and two partners). Today Fresh Direct is still a family business.
“Just as I began at Fresh Direct a competitor saw what we were doing and jumped on the organic bandwagon expecting to get a bit of the action,” Ana recalls. “That’s it, there goes my job, I thought. They had more resources than us, crashed prices, and even stole one of our salespeople, but we kept doing our best job. Failing to get more than 15% market share, they gave up three years later. There’s nothing like being passionate about something to keep you going against all odds.”
Over the years Ana has done everything from grading and packing veges, to cold-calling prospective clients – any job required to market fresh produce with the exception of growing it. Today her work involves analysis, planning, meetings, and working with supply partners and the sales team to build business for growers and customers alike.
While perennially loyal to organics, Ana has also held roles in the non-organic produce industry, from business development, to branch and product management. She was a member of the NZ Asparagus Council board for three years, and the experience highlighted the value of groups of growers working together to enhance their sector. She has recently resigned all her non-organic roles to focus on advancing the organic industry.
Originally from Spain (Barcelona), Ana taught English and Spanish to locals and foreigners. One foreigner happened to be a Kiwi.
“You could certainly spot them easily,” she said. “He used to come to school with jandals, a singlet and stubbies, so I couldn’t help falling in love with him. We got married (he didn’t wear stubbies on that day), had two children, and after a couple of years moved to New Zealand in 1993.”
After being introduced to organic food by a Spanish friend, the pair regularly shopped at Harvest Wholefoods in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn.
“I was a young mother wanting to feed my babies only the best,” she says, “but today a new type of organic consumer, who wasn’t around 25 years ago when eating organically was about health and quality nutrition, has become organic’s growth point. These consumers are millennials, Gens X and Y whose interest in organics is ethical, in environmental sustainability, not nutrition. Organic production reduces the stress on the ecosystem; that’s what resonates.”
Challenges for the organic sector include supply, demand, and quality. “Weather affects supply and quality, so those issues will never go away, but we have seen real improvement in produce quality as growers have become better at managing crops,” says Ana.
“Some growers have worked under organic management for a long time and are legends in the industry: Scott Lawson (True Earth), John Bostock, Chris Denniston, Kelvin Hicks, Brad Whitfield, and Tim Chamberlain. Their produce is intrinsically better than conventional, but looks second to none too, which has helped demand grow. We buy with our eyes after all, and most people, given the choice, prefer a good-looking piece of fruit.”
Core organic customers, those who won’t eat anything but organic, make up only 3% of the population worldwide, Ana says. Organic sector growth has come directly from mainstream consumers, and both supermarket chains have embraced organics, allowing for better planning and sustained development.
Merchandising organic produce has presented challenges, particularly in packaging. Ana would prefer not to have to pack at all because of financial and environmental costs, but recently a new environmentally sustainable option has allowed them to do away with some plastic and replace it with compostable trays and film.
Packaging is necessary because the bulk of organic produce is sold through supermarkets, which also sell conventional produce alongside. It preserves the organic status of the goods. It allows a barcode to be included so correct prices can be charged, sales can be traced, and grower traceability established. Purefresh is also currently trialling loose product, packed by the customer in brown paper bags, at Countdown Ponsonby.
“Many improvements in the organics industry can still be made,” says Ana. “A national organic standard would help with access to export markets and regulate the use of the word organic in the local market. It would be great too, to see funding allocated to research and development as it is for conventional management techniques.”
For comparison, in Ana’s homeland of Spain, producers are governed by the European organic standard, EU Regulation (CEE) 2092/91. It provides access to a ready market of 400 million people who are buying organic food that meets the same standard. European certification agencies have a strictly monitoring role, whereas New Zealand certifying agencies act as the benchmark for organic standards because we have no national standard. The situation can create conflicts of interest and hinder access to export markets, Ana says.
In Europe, organic horticulture and agriculture attract government subsidies, and governments pay certification expenses, so organic produce is comparatively cheaper than in New Zealand.
What does Ana see as the company’s successes? “Purefresh Organic is still here in many supermarkets and retail shops,” she says. “Organics is not going away. According to the latest OANZ Organic Market Report 66% of New Zealanders buy organics some of the time. Purefresh is part of that.”
“I look back and see we have come a long way, but it’s nowhere near where we could be. There’s still a lot to be done.”
Theresa Sjöquist is a freelance writer based in Helensville. www.theresasjoquist.com
Copyright Theresa Sjoquist
First published in Organic NZ magazine – January/February 2017 – Vol. 76, No.1
Theresa Sjoquist
Bioforce
Daily Organics
Theresa Sjoquist
