ONE of Australia’s largest commercial vegetable growing and processing operations Keilor Valley Gardens has announced it is going organic.

The new Ladybird Organics brand is close to receive certification next month from the Biological Farmers Australia and will be able to label their farm produce “Organic in Conversion”.

The third generation family company now run by brothers Steve and Peter Skopilianos was one of the early pioneers of packaged salads and supplies around 80% of its produce to the foodservice market.

Peter Skopilianos said the decision to move to a totally organic production system was driven by concerns of the lack of taste and chemicals in food, and the impact they have on our environment are signals for change.

“Instead of throwing expensive and harmful agricultural chemicals at problems, we recognised the value of organics to break the cycle and satisfy our vision—to put people and the environment first.”

“We’re almost going full circle—back to the natusral farming practices that our grandparents used when they set up market gardening in this same area in the mid 1940s.”

“Instead of throwing expensive and harmful agricultural chemicals at problems, we recognised the value of organics to break the cycle and satisfy our vision – to put people & the environment first.”

Organics has traditionally been the territory of small-scale lifestyle operators. Increasing market demand has made organic horticulture one of the fastest growing categories.

“We’ve been able to approach organics atypically - with existing, high-volume systems in place and three generations of expertise and knowledge of the supply chain. Our challenge has been to deepen our understanding of organic principles and techniques and explore ways to incorporate them into our very successful commercial systems. We had to change the company culture and mindset, literally from the ground up.”