When Australian fresh produce grower-marketer Costa Group was listed on the stock market in 2015, the company had the ambition to strengthen its global footprint, but it had just 182 ha of blueberry plantings through a joint venture in Morocco and a tentative deal with multinational Driscoll's to grow berries in China.
Costa Group's annual report reveals that for the first time, its international berry plantings are greater than those in home-grown soil and pots, at 749 ha, edging ahead of its 727 ha of berry farms in Australia.
Costa's berry operations abroad now represent more than 9 percent of all its farms, bolstered by a new 100-ha farm in the Baoshan Agripark in China, where the group had its first harvest last year. The group's 400 ha of operations in China, all in the Yunnan province through the Driscoll's joint venture (JV), have overtaken those in Morocco (369 ha) operated by its 90 percent-owned subsidiary, African Blue.
Source: businessnewsaustralia.com