YOUR INDUSTRY FEATURE
PANDEMIC BOOSTS GARLIC SALES
Land is leased around Marlborough, but it is becoming harder to find
Demand for garlic soared last year, as the spread of Covid-19 and recurring lockdowns saw consumers turn to home-cooked meals and healthier ingredients. ANNE HARDIE reports. Marlborough growers, brothers Robert Harrison-Jones and Alan Jones, experienced “through the roof” demand for their garlic bulbs when the first bout of the pandemic hit in 2020. “The first year of Covid, garlic roared out the door,” Robert says. The family has been growing garlic since the 1970s, the brothers buying the business from the previous generation in 2003, renaming it Garlico because customers struggled to pronounce the previous name, Piquant Garlic. The operation now encompasses 25-ha of garlic, 14-ha of shallots and 20-ha of onion seed each year. Plus, another 35-ha of mustard seed, rye corn and balage. Marlborough is ideal garlic country with its cold winters, hot summers and fertile soils. Nothing is guaranteed though and last year‘s unusually wet winter has had a flowon effect for this year‘s crop of garlic. Wet ground delayed planting around the shortest day and then summer was slower turning on the heat, pushing harvest back a few weeks to the end of January.
On the upside, later plantings resulted in a better-formed, albeit smaller bulb. The business sells its garlic through MG Marketing and Fresh Direct, and it is also included in the home delivery kit, My Food Bag. Robert says sales have settled since the early days of Covid-19, which he attributes to the proliferation of meal ingredient businesses now delivering their kits to homes.
The operation now encompasses 25-ha of garlic, 14-ha of shallots and 20-ha of onion seed each year. Plus, another 35-ha of mustard seed, rye corn and balage The brothers grow their own garlic seed, selecting 50 tonnes of medium to large cloves for the next year‘s crop. Using their own seed is a necessity rather than a choice as they cannot import new seed from countries such as France due to biosecurity restrictions. The brothers‘ garlic has NZGAP (Good Agricultural Practice) certification that records everything from spraying to employment and is regularly audited. NZGROWER : FEBRUARY 2022 27
