Costa is Australia's leading producer, packer, and marketer of fresh fruits and vegetables and operates mainly in five main categories: berries, mushrooms, greenhouse tomatoes, citrus, and avocados. Operations include more than 7,200 hectares of farmland, 40 hectares of greenhouse facilities, and three mushroom growing facilities throughout Australia.
Costa also has strategic interests abroad, with majority joint ventures covering six blueberries farms in Morocco and four berry farms in China, covering about 750 hectares under cultivation.
COSTA'S BLUEBERRIES
Costa's blueberries are grown in Australia in four different states (NSW, QLD, WA and TAS) and at five different latitudes (41°, 35°, 31°, 30° and 17°) on about 480 hectares. The different growing regions enable Costa to supply fruit to its customers year-round.
The production of blueberries consists of multiple varieties to adapt to all different environmental conditions, with a large percentage dedicated to the production of the premium variety Arana, developed by Costa. Costa's varietal improvement program is recognized worldwide, with Costa varieties licensed in regions such as the Americas, Morocco, China and South Africa.
THE VARIETAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Based in Corindi, on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, the program develops one or two new varieties of blueberries of global commercial value each year. It uses Costa's extensive network of farms in mid-latitude, low-latitude and low to medium temperature locations to select, evaluate and develop new varieties suitable for a range of global growing conditions, meeting the needs of customers and consumers.
Using traditional plant breeding techniques, the team identifies and develops plant selections chosen for their performance in the key areas of fruit quality, productivity and agronomic outcomes.
THE SPEAKER AT INTERNATIONAL BLUEBERRY DAYS
Costa's speaker at International Blueberry Days is Maurizio Rocchetti, senior agronomist at the Costa Group, Australia's leading fresh fruit and vegetable grower.
In his 10 years with Costa, Maurizio has worked as Pest and Disease Manager and Blueberry Production Manager within the Berry category, and is now Plant Supply Manager, overseeing plant supply and variety selection in all berry growing regions in Australia.
He has a strong passion for research and development activities and improving crop and ecosystem management through field trials. Through his research and farm management activities, he aims to increase the efficiency of agricultural production. He has also established a strong collaboration with UNE (University of New England) for research that has improved farm practices related to pollination of berry crops.
