Mareeba fruit growers’ cooling solution creates jobs thanks to RED Grant

26 September 2023

Mareeba lychee and pomelo farm Nastasi Farming 4Gen is building a cold room to preserve fruit quality and creating up to two local jobs with a Rural Economic Development (RED) Grant.

The family operation is installing a purpose-built cold room to package fresh produce ready for market. 

Nastasi Farming 4Gen co-owner Sam Nastasi said that given the short shelf-life of lychees, the cold room would be critical to prevent the fruit degrading in the North Queensland heat. 

“The cold room facility is essential for overall quality of the fruit. If not cooled accordingly risk of damage to the skin may occur, making the lychees unsaleable," he said.

"Without the cold room, we were not able to pack our fruit on site, and were forced to outsource an external packing facility. This required additional challenges and added costs with having to source refrigerated transport and pre-chilling the fruit using a hired cooling facility."

The cold room will also create new opportunities for the operation, including expanding into new markets and packing for other local farms.

"With the cooling no longer a barrier, we now have an opportunity to grow the business by planting more fruit trees and increasing  overall production," Sam said.

The cold room is expected to be up-and-running by next year, and will create up to two direct, full-time jobs.

Nastasi Farming 4Gen is one of 24 businesses approved for the fifth round of the competitive RED grants program with a total funding of $3.9 million. Overall, the fifth round of the RED Grants program is expected to create up to 215 direct, long-term jobs.

Grants are available for up to $200,000 with a 50 per cent cash contribution requirement from applicants to fund projects which generate economic and employment opportunities related to primary production value chains across rural and remote Queensland.

Over five years, the Palaszczuk Government’s RED Grants program has provided a total of $13.3 million in funding to support 59 successful regional agribusiness projects, worth more than $52.4 million and estimated to create over 2,500 new direct and indirect jobs.

A sixth round of RED Grants, supporting Indigenous-owned agribusinesses and projects aimed at low-emissions agriculture, has been allocated for the 2023-24 financial year, with applications to open later this year.

For more information about the RED Grant scheme, visit the RED Grant scheme page.

The Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) administers the RED Grant scheme on behalf of the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.