Head Grower, D'VineRipe Pty Ltd - VIRGINIA SA
CATEGORY: PRODUCTIVITY
Head grower for D’VineRipe, Naresh Singh, claims the title for the longest serving single operation non-owner grower in Australia - a loyal employee in a transient occupation. On top of this he has also achieved the best-in-world yield from Syngenta specialty varieties, earning him a nomination in the Productivity category.
There is no doubt Naresh is an extremely competent grower, one of the best in his field in Australia and New Zealand. His best yield figures to date are: Dunne 35.62kg/m2 by far the world’s best achievement, Perino 29.38kg/m2 world’s best, Sweetelle 25.76kg/m2, Kumato grape 26.5kg/m2, also 75kg from large truss Komeet.
D’VineRipe is one of the largest active greenhouse growing facilities in Australia and New Zealand, with 36 ha at their main site, ‘Two Wells’ in South Australia, plus a further 10 ha of satellite growers local and interstate. They are mainly a large fruited truss and specialty crops tomato producer but are also experimenting with a number of other crops. They employ 600 people at their Two Wells site in peak season.
Their production is based mainly around specialty crops, being 80% of their total planting. They are the largest producer in Australia and New Zealand of specialty varieties Dunne, Sweetelle and Kumato. They are also one of the largest Kumato producers in the world, achieving the highest per capita consumption of Kumato types globally via their marketing arm, Perfection Fresh Australia.