General News
6 March, 2022
FNQ organisations partner to bring farmers sustainable solutions
Townsville-based organisation VRM Biologik Group and Cairns-based company Sun Savannah Foods have joined forces to improve the state of agriculture and sustainably grown foods in Far North Queensland.
Through this partnership, VRM Biologik is investing in an end-to-end supply of climateadapted, high-value seed stock for drought mitigation programs across the country.
These programs work to regenerate the land they are grown on and create crucial profitability during fallow years. VRM Biologik Chief Executive Officer Kellie Walters said they were very excited about the partnership.
“Ultimately, we’re joining two forces that align philosophically and to ensure that we provide an end-to-end market service for all the growers out there,” Ms Walters said.
The partnership came to fruition as both organisations wanted to focus on farmers’ desire to move to more sustainable practices.
“We were looking for opportunities to integrate our offering,” Ms Walters said.
“We know that our farmers are particularly keen to move away from conventional practices and more towards sustainable farming, and this was an opportunity to offer that to them.”
VRM Biologik brings its world-first technology for improving carbon sequestration and soil moisture to the partnership.
This technology underpins the ability to grow in dry periods without chemical inputs and supercharges the capacity to grow climate-adapted specialist food and fodder crops using seed stocks developed locally.
Ms Walters said this technology gives them an edge over other organisations.
“Our technology is unique and what we see in the field with the farmers is that we can equip them with the capacity to manufacture their own agricultural input,” she said.
“That is a fairly unique offering in the agricultural space.”
Ms Walters expects that they can expand throughout the country with Savannah Sun Foods as a division of VRM Biologik.
“We’re a proud North Queensland business, so we look to be able to influence what happens in the market in NQ and deliver those innovations to the rest of Australia and ultimately the world,” she said.
“What we do in our backyard translates to our activities over in China, in the United States and increasingly in Southeast Asia.”
With VRM Biologik as a soil restoration company and Sun Savannah Foods involved in the seed market, Ms Walters said that the partnership helps them reach the needs of the farmers.
“Savannah Sun Foods offers us a niche arm in the growing native seed stock, particularly in Northern Australia, but we will move to the rest of Australia,” she said.
“It provides for us an opportunity to tap into the needs of farmers, and it’s a gap that we’ve noticed over the years that we can now offer to all of our customer base.”
Head of Savannah Sun Foods Tony Matchett said that by integrating with VRM Biologik, they reach their goal to be more environmentally friendly.
“This partnership with the team at VRM Biologik completes our passion for a circular economy in the development of sustainable and resilient farming system solutions in northern Australia,” Mr Matchett said.
“The technology this brings allows us to remove, reuse and redistribute potential waste streams in our business, and ensures growers and the communities and regions where they operate are at the forefront of sustainable actions for a better future.”
Both organisations acknowledge that the time to move to more sustainable practices is now.
“The writing is on the wall; the consumer is demanding higher quality nutrients in food, the soils are in need of significant improvement,” Ms Walters said.
“We need to be able to ensure that we’re able to grow food for our future generations.
“The time is right to be moving towards practices that actually enrich the earth and also enrich the consumer.”
