The 72-square metre laboratory in Officer, Victoria, will operate for the 2017 season. It is being built adjacent to commercial storage facilities and orchard, and will be the mirror image of the two laboratories that AgroFresh operate in the USA.

The laboratory will be run by AgroFresh’s Research & Development Manager, Dr Hannah James, who returned to Australia about eighteen months ago from AgroFresh in the USA.

Commercial Manager for Australia, Nick Sanders, says the laboratory managed by Hannah would be a significant step up in terms of the company’s R&D in Australia, although some work would continue to be outsourced. “Our aim is to work with customers to ensure their fruit, whether it’s apples or pears, is as good as it can be at harvest time and the benefits of SmartFresh can be maximised. “The laboratory will also have the flexibility to include other crops as the use of AgroFresh’s technologies expands.”

Sanders says the business was very fortunate to have a specialist of the calibre of James to run its R&D functions. A graduate of Sydney University’s Department of Horticulture, Hannah did her post-doctorate at Cornell University in New York and has become an expert in post-harvest management and the use of SmartFresh 1-MCP.  Before returning to Australia, she spent over five years with AgroFresh in the USA, two years as Associate R&D Manager based in Wenatchee, Washington State.

James says she is excited about the prospects for the new laboratory, and support that it will give AgroFresh customers. “As each new piece of equipment arrives and is unpacked, it feels like Christmas. We will undertake pre- and post-harvest testing, and this facility will allow us to validate a lot of information that has been generated in other regions, specifically for the Australian environment.

“We are fortunate to be able to tap into the company’s global research and development and leverage the wealth of knowledge that has already been generated. However with our own climatic conditions, fruit varieties and physiology, harvest and storage practices, Australian growers and packers have their own specific challenges, which we can help them respond to.  Also fruit changes from year to year, just as the markets can.

“We see the purpose of the laboratory as a tool for giving customers the best solutions to problems that arise.  It will be used to solve issues that come up throughout the season, and to validate what we are telling growers. In every sense it will be customer-focused.”