Image L-R: Back row: Penny Brereton, Executive Commercial Manager – Fresh Select, Elisa Walerys, Chief People Officer – Fresh Select, Kaushik Mulukutla, General Manager Commercial Operations- Fresh Select, David Menegazzo, Chief of Sales – Fresh Select, Lucy Gregg, General Manager, Public Affairs and Communications – AUSVEG, Paul McGrath, National Impact Partnerships Manager – Plus One Serve – AUSVEG.
Plus One Serve is proud to welcome Fresh Select as a signatory for the Pledge for More Veg. Fresh Select is one of Australia’s largest lettuce and brassica growers and are committed to help close the country’s vegetable gap.
If you’ve bought broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce or Brussels sprouts recently, there’s a good chance it came from a Fresh Select farm. Headquartered in Werribee South, Victoria — fittingly known as the “salad bowl of Victoria” – Fresh Select has grown over more than three decades into one of Australia’s leading vegetable producers. Today the business grows produce across three Australian regions, taking advantage of Werribee South’s soils, Bairnsdale’s cooler summer climate, and the rich growing country around Gatton and Toowoomba in southeast Queensland, as well as the Adelaide Hills near Mount Barker – a footprint that lets them supply fresh, quality vegetables to Australian tables all year round, regardless of season.
More than a grower – a systems thinker
What makes Fresh Select’s pledge particularly meaningful is the way the business approaches the entire vegetable supply chain, not just the paddock. Fresh Select is vertically integrated, spanning seed procurement, farm production, agronomy, quality assurance, sales, marketing, operations and logistics. That means every stage of getting vegetables from seed to plate is considered, and improved, under one roof.
This whole-of-chain thinking extends to sustainability, too. The company has installed one of the largest solar panel arrays in Australia at its farm, allowing it to run off-grid during daylight hours and even operate as a registered power company. It’s the kind of long-term investment that reflects a business built for the next 60 years, not just the next season.
Perhaps most aligned with Plus One Serve’s mission is Fresh Select’s work through Nutri V, developed in partnership with the CSIRO. Around 20 to 30 per cent of what’s planted doesn’t get harvested for retail, so Nutri V redirects that produce and repurposes it into other products, tackling both food waste and the fact that most Australians aren’t getting their recommended vegetable intake. As the team behind it puts it, they want to end food waste and farm loss while getting more vegetables onto Australian plates.
Why this partnership matters
Australia has a vegetable problem. Only 6.5% of Australian adults and 4.6% of children meet the recommended daily intake of vegetables. Solving that isn’t just a job for dietitians and health campaigns; it needs growers, processors and supply chain leaders pulling in the same direction as health and policy.
Fresh Select brings scale, decades of horticultural expertise, and a genuine commitment to reducing waste and lifting consumption. By signing the Pledge for More Veg, they’re putting their name, and their supply chain, behind the goal of making an extra serve of veg a normal part of how Australians eat.
Get involved
Fresh Select’s pledge is a reminder that this movement needs voices from every part of the food system – growers, processors, retailers, health bodies and policymakers alike. Plus One Serve is calling on organisations across the food system, health sector, policymakers, and community-based businesses to get onboard with the Pledge for More Veg.
Reach out to Plus One Serve to find out how your organisation can sign the pledge and help close Australia’s veg gap.