Making History - Edition 4

Farm Frites
Jun 26
3 min read

The Farm Frites Australia processing facility in Dooen, Victoria, remains on track as construction continues.

Farm Frites hard hats and high vis vests at factory site in Dooen Victoria

Farm Frites Australia potato manufacturing facility in Dooen Victoria near Horsham.

PEOPLE

Our Farm Frites Victorian sales team may be new, but they’re already off to a strong start.

State Sales Manager Ryan Howard (top right) is embracing the role with enthusiasm. Recently presenting a standout Patatas Bravas dish that looked fantastic, Ryan is quickly building momentum while deepening his knowledge of potato products.

Area Manager Tim Sauvarin (bottom right) recently took on the challenge of managing the state solo for several months – an experience that has set him up well for his current focus. Now covering the North West, Tim has hit the ground running across Melbourne’s north-western suburbs and is expanding into key regional areas including Ballarat, Horsham and Bendigo, as well as the west coast from Geelong through to Portland.

Area Manager Matt Hughes (the tall one with the beard) is a couple of months into the role and already making an impact. Based in the South East, Matt is focused on driving incremental growth across the south-eastern suburbs, the Mornington Peninsula and throughout Gippsland.

Having participated in initial training with “Geoff the Chef”, the Team are now making presentations to Distributors and End Users across the State. With success already coming and the whole State to work with, we are looking forward to great Sales from the Victorian Team, especially the results driven by their Precinct Plans.

POTATOES

One of the newer breeds we will be trialing is Etana – modern, medium-late potato variety developed for the frozen french fry market. It offers great chip quality, strong disease resistance, and impressive yields. It combines strong agronomic performance with excellent processing quality, making it a promising addition to our supply pipeline.

Etana Strengths

Excellent fry colour
Long, uniform tubers produce high strip yields
Large average tuber size
Very low eye depth reducing peeling losses
Maintains good fry quality after long-term storage
Good shape retention during processing
Consistent finished product appearance

Etana also delivers where it matters most – on the plate. The result is fries with a crisp exterior, fluffy interior, and reliable yield after frying.

PRODUCT

Some of our favourite products are our Hashbrowns – crafted from European-style potatoes and known for their golden colour, rich flavour and satisfyingly chunky texture. They’re a crowd favourite for a reason.

We’ve deliberately made them slightly thicker than standard hashbrowns, giving kitchen staff a more robust, easy-to-handle product that performs reliably in busy commercial environments.

PARTNERS

Solan (SA) Pty Ltd is a certified potato seed production facility located in Waikerie, in South Australia’s Riverland Region. Certified seed, widely referred to as mini tubers, are produced within Solan’s specialised Greenhouses, from tissue culture plantlets. The mini tubers are dispatched to potato seed growers all over Australia. These initial mini tuber stocks are critical for growing Seed Potatoes to be used in growing healthy Potato Crops and literally kickstart the Australian potato supply chain. Solan was initiated by a group of potato growers based in the Mallee region of South Australia seeking to improve potato production outcomes, commencing operations in 1992. Solan is used to produce Mini Tubers for the 3 main segments of the potato industry: Processing; Crisping; and Fresh Potatoes.

Additional services offered by Solan to the Australian potato industry include:

commercialisation of potato varieties (Plant Breeders Rights)
maintenance of potato genetic material in the form of tissue culture in Solan’s laboratory
cool storage of mini tubers.

Solan is proud to supply Farm Frites with potato mini tubers to support their start in the Australian Market.

Solan partners with Farm Frites Austrlia

PROMOTION

Wimmera Careers Expo – Horsham

We recently attended the Wimmera Careers Expo at the Wimmera Field Days site, just outside Horsham. Now in its 40th year, the event brings together organisations from across the region to showcase a wide range of career opportunities, from nursing through to mining.

Our HR team, led by Mark Fischman, connected with a number of promising candidates while sharing insights into future opportunities with Farm Frites.

A key focus of the day was supporting Year 10 and older students as they explore potential career pathways. In total, around 2,000 students attended, travelling from across the region, as far afield as Casterton and Lake Bolac.

To help introduce Farm Frites to the local community, we also ran a food van serving free Farm Frites fries. It was a standout success, with queues of up to 50 students at a time—clear proof that great fries speak for themselves. In fact, expo organisers are already hoping we’ll be back with more free fries next year.