Australian grower-marketer OneHarvest has invested A$3.8m (US$3.4m) in a new beetroot processing plant in Bairnsdale, Victoria, which will produce the company’s pre-packaged Love Beets baby beetroot line.
The new facility has been specifically designed to utilise vacuum pack technologies, which heighten the beetroot taste experience and produce a value-added product, according to OneHarvest’s Rob Munton.
“Traditionally beetroot has been canned and cooked with added sugar, salt and vinegar,” Munton says. “With Love Beets we simply use fresh baby beetroot that has been peeled, placed into and gently cooked in a vacuum-packed pouch. There’s no need for additives, it’s just 100 per cent beetroot.”
Munton says the concept has been well received by consumers, prompting OneHarvest to release new flavour-infused Love Beets varieties such as chilli, balsamic and sweet & mild vinegar. He says the ready-to-eat products are particularly appealing to time-poor consumers.
“From a consumer perspective, convenience is a big factor,” Munton tells Asiafruit. “People want healthy food that can be put together in a hurry, and it can be quite fiddly and time consuming peeling and boiling beetroot.”
Love Beets is the product of a licensing process developed over 20 years in the UK. OneHarvest originally launched an import trial with Love Beets UK and have simply switched to Australian-grown beetroot to continue meeting consumer demand.
“We found a business with a product that had experienced great success, growing its sales by around 125 per cent between 2000 and 2012,” OneHarvest marketing manager Treena Welch explains. “We established a relationship with that business, licensed the unique technology and set about learning all we could about how they had reinvigorated the category and how they planted, harvested, processed and marketed their beetroot. As a result we have a fantastic new product that has been well received by retailers and consumers.”
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