The new Costa Innovation Centre was formally launched on March 20 at Costa's glasshouse facility in Guyra, on the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales. Costa CEO Marc Werner and Vertical Farming General Manager Manpreet Sidhu cut the ribbon for the Centre.
Close to 30 new types and varieties of produce are already being tested in the Innovation Centre to assess their potential as commercial fruit and vegetable product lines. This includes popular produce, such as cucumbers, as well as innovative new varieties of fruit and vegetables.
"Costa is well known for being an industry leader in the growing and supply of premium fresh produce, including our glasshouse-grown tomatoes, and we are excited to be able to diversify and extend our product offering. We look forward to sharing more with our customers as we progress through our testing," Mr Werner said.
Since 2005, Costa has invested over $200 million in the establishment and ongoing expansion of 40 hectares of glasshouses spread across two locations in Guyra – Elm Street and New England Highway. The glasshouses enable produce to be grown in a sustainable and fully protected cropping environment, which helps to mitigate the impact of extreme weather volatility, requires less land than comparable field crops, enables the supply of consistent quality produce year-round, and more efficient yield per unit of water usage versus field crops.
"This Centre will ensure we can continue to innovate and develop new, premium quality differentiated produce varieties for our customers, both in Australia and through existing and emerging export opportunities," Mr Werner said.
For more information:
Costa Group
Michael Toby
Tel.: 03 8363 9071
Email: micheal.toby@costagroup.com.au
http://www.costagroup.com.au/