Nicole Manison

Minister for Agribusiness and Aquaculture

Media Release

Growing our Industries: Local Ginger Ready for Harvest

8 September 2021

A local ginger trial is seeing some very positive results, with the harvest getting underway this week and Territory businesses already lining up for the locally grown produce.

The commercial trial is just one of many collaborations the Territory Government is undertaking with local growers and the broader industry to diversify the agricultural sector – as recommended by the Territory Economic Reconstruction Report.

The Australian ginger industry has a farm-gate value of $32M and is currently concentrated in south-east Queensland, but local producer Mic Jakobi believes the Territory can establish a disease-free ginger industry, which could lead to premium prices for clean seed ginger – up to $25kg.

This 3-year trial is also focussed on understanding the best conditions to grow the Queensland Gold and Canton ginger varieties, including determining the optimum nutrition and irrigation regimes, as well as producing ginger during the off season.

Territory businesses including the Purple Mango Café and Brewery, One Mile Brewery and Harvest Press Juice have already shown interest in using local ginger in products like juice, cakes and ginger beer.

To find out more information about plant industries research and development in the Northern Territory, head online: [https://industry.nt.gov.au/projects-and-initiatives/primary-industry/plant-industries-research-and-development]

Quotes from Minister for Agribusiness and Aquaculture, Nicole Manison

“Our Plant industries - including our famous mangoes, melons and Asian vegetables is valued at $445 million and this trial presents another exciting economic opportunity for the Territory.”

“This is such an exciting opportunity to diversify the agriculture sector in the Territory and it’s fantastic to have a situation where local businesses are interested in the product from a local grower.

“The preliminary results from the trial indicate the potential value from a hectare of greenhouse space of ginger is approximately $175,000.”

“We look forward to seeing the results of the trial over the next two years, and to supporting our horticulture sector to grow.”

Quotes from Michael Jakobi, Local Ginger Producer

“We’ve been getting excellent results. One sample 100g bag of ginger rhizomes weighed 2.4kg – more than 20 times its weight and another 100g bag weighed 3kg, which is 30 times its original weight.

“I also gathered some of the ginger from a sample and after making sure there are no pathogens, ground it down to a powder, and freeze dried it. Already, three local businesses have sampled the powder and they love the strong flavour."

Quotes from Stuart Bardy, Owner/Manager of One Mile Brewery

"We are always looking for local ingredients to use in our products, to be able to source larger quantities of quality locally grown ginger will allow us to keep up with demand and help promote local produce."

Quotes from Adam Asanovski, Owner/Manager of Purple Mango Café and Brewery

"Here at the purple mango we strive to use local produce as much as possible. All our mango products are made from locally sourced mangoes from NT farms.

"We are particularly excited about Mic's ginger as we use bulk fresh ginger in our hand crafted alcoholic ginger beer and this would fit our use local strategy perfectly.”

Quotes from Marian Flynn Owner/Operator The Harvest Press

“We have sampled some of Mic’s fresh ginger and it’s bursting with flavour. Ginger has so many wonderful health benefits and we use it in many of our juices and Juice Cleanse Programs.

"We are delighted to be part of this trial and will be using and storing it in a variety of ways to provide feedback to Mic.”

Media Contact –Alex Cannon - 0407 239 967

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