WHETHER it’s schools, sporting clubs or even a goat farm, Sharp Fruit always find a way to give back to the local community.
Initially the idea of two fourth generation Woorinen stone fruit growers, the business now employs up to 60 workers during the harvest, exports to all seven states and territories in Australia, and internationally, their fruit can be found in Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, Thailand and Taiwan.
Michael Young and Dean Morpeth are the two founding partners of Sharp Fruit, and created the business when they had too much stock and not enough storage.
“We were separate packers and needed to expand, and we came to the conclusion that we were better off joining forces and building a new facility that we can both deliver to,” Mr Young said.
“We pack and trade under Sharp Fruit as a separate company to our farms, and deliver to the company as growers like everyone else.
“Since we built the shed three years ago, we now have nine different growing families who deliver here, primarily from the Woorinen district – we’re on our fourth season.”
Mr Morpeth is in charge of sales and “generally runs most of the shed”, Mr Young said.
He also leads the school tours, with Woorinen Primary students frequently visiting since Sharp Fruit has been up and running.
“I concentrate more on the farms, with the growers, and do a bit of maintenance to keep things going – I was a mechanic for ten years before returning to the family farm,” Mr Young said.
“We have pretty separate roles, but it works well.”
Mr Morpeth is currently the chair of Swan Hill summer fruits, and for years Mr Young was involved with Summerfruits Australia.
Mr Young was also involved with Summerfruit Export Development Alliance (SEDA), of which Mr Morpeth is a member.
SEDA is an organisation of growers who advise various governments on protocols and share knowledge about growth export markets.
This combined expertise of Mr Young and Mr Morpeth has seen Sharp Fruits grow exponentially in a few short years, with both of their product lines in the majority of leading supermarkets.
Sharp Fruit package white and yellow nectarines, red plums, peaches and apricots, with their Bee-licious line being a Class 1 product and their premium export brand.
“Sharp is the more general retail brand,” Mr Young said.
“And we have Class 2 fruit available for a dollar a kilo in the shop.
“We decided to put a little shop at the end of the shed because all the fruit is accredited for food safety by Freshcare, and we’re an accredited pack house, so people can just come and and get what they need.
“We also give fruit to Woorinen Primary, Lions Clubs, and even triathlons.
“With our fruit waste, we give that to a local goat farm – we minimise the risk of fruit fly, because it’s certainly getting eaten!”
The facility was built by Entegra Signature Structures, and Mr Young said Sharp Fruits used local trades when they could, for plumbing, electrical, and cool room maintenance.
Sharp Fruits itself employs around 35 people for most of the year, with the export season seeing that number grow to 55 to 60 workers.
“We hire quite a few kids that are just on school holidays,” Mr Young said.
“They are either on the grading lines or put exports bags into boxes, things like that.
“We also employ a lot of university students who are interested in working and making money during their break.
“And they’re good people to have here, you’ve got to support the local workforce as well.”
Like many country regions, Mr Young has seen generations of siblings going through Sharp Fruit, and young workers encouraging their friends to come out for the harvest.
In management positions, there are people in charge of fruit arrival, workers who run the bin tipping, a floor manager, dispatch, and a line manager who controls the software and sets up the grader.
One of the biggest innovations for Sharp Fruit has been the Peachvision 3, a grader from Italy that impressed Mr Young when he first saw it on a trip to the US in 2019.
“There are only a few in Australia of this model,” Mr Young said.
“It has the ability to pull out all the fruit that is too soft, or marked, or has beetle damage.
“We set the parameters so that only the best fruit gets in the box, and it has saved a lot of time, I’m very happy with it.”
This upcoming summer, in addition to a busy harvest Sharp Fruit will be sponsoring the Woorinen Cricket Club.
Other sporting teams they sponsor are the Woorinen Football Netball Club, and the Swan Hill Table Tennis Association.
Their support of local initiatives doesn’t come as much of a surprise when Mr Young explains that Sharp Fruit gets its name from an abbreviation.
“It stands for ‘Swan Hill And Region Packing’,” he said.
“Not many people realise that!”
