With South Australia’s olive industry tipped to exceed $50 million a year Australia Post’s Express Courier International (ECI) service is poised to help producers further develop this growing market.
Pendleton Estate, producers of extra virgin olive oil from the Limestone Coast, have recently appointed an export manager and are using ECI to send samples to Asia and America.
Supply manager, Manfred Gross, says American consumers already know about Australian wine and believes this synergy will help open doors. He’s also very pleased with the performance of ECI in getting samples safely to their overseas destinations.
Five growers are delivering six varieties of fruit to the processing plant at Keith. From here, oil is blended and shipped in bulk to Adelaide for bottling and then dispatched from their Stepney warehouse and distribution centre.
Pendleton Estate is also one of the first companies to join a new online marketing channel being developed to link producers, suppliers and buyers in the food and beverage industry – bee1stop.com.au gives them a presence in markets such as regional NSW where they don’t have distributors. Australia Post’s wine deliver service then handles delivery in cartons or bulk drums up to 20 litres (which fall within the 20kg weight limit for carriage by post).
WinePOST
Edition 17, Veraison 2008