Erbacher’s voted Queensland’s best

For the second year, Erbacher’s Fruit and Vegetables on the Sunshine Coast has won the A better choice! Retailer of the Year - People’s Choice Award for Queensland and come second overall in the national competition. Nationally, the top spot was won by Adelaide Fresh Fruiterers in Morphett Vale, South Australia. A joint initiative from Fresh Markets Australia and the Central Markets Association of Australia, A better choice! (ABC) supports more than 700 retailers across Australia and is the first national program designed to encourage consumers to shop for fresh produce at their local independent fruit and vegetable retailers. This year has been full of challenges for the Australian fruit and vegetable industry, but the independent retailers with some good old-fashioned hard work, have dug deep and kept the fruit and vegetable supply chain going strong and provided the best produce Australia has to offer for their local communities. The ABC Retailer of the Year People’s Choice Award is designed to highlight the stores that received the most nominations from their local community as their favourite store, in celebration of the quality, freshness and service provided at Aussie independent fruit and veg shops. This year over 16,000 shoppers nominated 428 individual stores as their favourite fruit and veg shop. Angelina Campbell from Erbacher’s Fruit and Vegetables said, “We’d like to say a big thank you to the community who nominated us, without you, there’s no us! We’re that old-school family-owned business so you get that family feel and good prices with friendly service.” According to ABC Ambassador and Masterchef winner, Callum Hann, it is great to see the community come together to celebrate the hard work our retailers have done to continue to give people excellent quality fresh produce every day. “The industry has been going through some pretty tough times over the last few years, and it’s great to give recognition to those that go above and beyond and stand out within the industry,” Mr Hann said. “I believe it’s important to support independent retailers because it’s good to know you’re supporting the little guys, and you’re always guaranteed exceptional service and great quality produce.”

Winning combination: the team at Erbacher’s Fruit and Vegetables celebrating their People’s Choice Award.