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Stories - 12-02-2019

New developments give us that extra edge in the market

Hussey & Co. share our passion for top quality produce and continuous innovation and have been a valued customer of Rijk Zwaan Australia for more than 15 years. With production and processing locations in Newry and Pearcedale, Victoria, and Gatton, Queensland, Hussey & Co. grow and supply premium baby leaf salad mixes all year round. Managing Director, Jeremy Haw, shares their story.

The extra edge

For all of our products, we want to maintain an edge every day. Our aim is to continually develop new and exciting products that stand out in the industry and to remain innovators in horticulture. From a technology point of view, we have invested in high tech processing equipment, but it starts with good raw material and Rijk Zwaan lettuce is a consistently good product. Whether it’s a Cos, butterhead, or Salanova® variety, with or without Knox™, that’s the one we’ll use. Rijk Zwaan is a company renowned for its innovation in lettuce and we are always very interested in looking at their new developments that might give us that extra edge in the market.

Every day counts

Our single most important objective is to provide all our customers in the local and export markets with the very best quality product all year round. From a salad leaf point of view, oxidation is always an issue and the delayed ‘pinking’, also known as ‘browning’ in the new Knox™ varieties gives us extra time to market. We export a lot of product (to Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Tokyo), we sell to retailers, and we ship product from Melbourne up to Queensland, and then further to North Queensland, so every day counts. Knox™ varieties are giving us a fantastic result in terms of presentation.

The best lettuce eating experience

We want to give the customer a great eating experience. With lettuce, you eat with your eyes so it has to look fresh and clean cut. Knox™ lifts the whole standard for the industry. Often you get product that’s showing signs of browning in the bag, or a box with a leaf that’s started to oxidise early and it ruins the whole mix – so if you can avoid that, it’s an advantage. Knox™ is really outstanding, it’s the biggest thing Rijk Zwaan has done since the introduction of butterhead Salanova® lettuce.

Knox™

Read more about Knox­™ or check out the Rijk Zwaan Knox™ varieties. 

Jeremy Haw of Hussey & Co.