Quinoa gamble wins big for Wheatbelt farmers

The first West Australian grown white quinoa has hit the shelves of all Coles supermarkets across the country, replacing imported products.

Originally from the Andres Mountain Range of South America, the ancient grain is notoriously difficult to grow, but a group of farmers near Narrogin in the Wheatbelt, has spent the past seven years experimenting with the superfood.

“We brought in half a kilo of grain which we grew out, and it was really diverse and then we hand selected a few plants, it was literally five plants that this whole story’s evolved from,” said Ashley Wiese from 3Farmers.

Once they’d worked out how to cultivate the ancient grain under West Australian conditions, Mr Wiese and his partners at 3Farmers, faced with having to send their quinoa to California for processing, to remove a bitter coating called saponin.

Instead they took a big gamble and invested in their own facility, the first in mainland Australia.

“The step for us to build a processing plant, dedicated to quinoa, when we hadn’t actually sold a grain yet and we were having issues growing it, it was very variable, was a really big step,” said Mr Wiese.

The $1.5 million facility on the Wiese family farm at Highbury, can now process about 500 tonnes of white quinoa each year, enough to meet Australia’s annual demand for the superfood.

Coles contributed $500,000 towards the plant, through its Nurture Fund, and will be the main stockist of the superfood.

“It’s been an absolute rollercoaster, but it’s just so great to get to this stage,” said Mr Wiese.

Wesfarmers Managing Director Richard Goyder says it’s a win for customers, as research shows almost 95 per cent of Australians believe it’s important to buy locally-grown products.

“It’s terrific and it goes to the sort of innovation we want in Agriculture in Western Australia and around the country,” he said.

Low GI, high in protein and anti-oxidants, quinoa can be used in everything from porridge to salads and is a good substitute for rice.

3Farmers will supply Coles with more than 800,000 packets of white quinoa each year and look to produce locally-grown red and black varieties in the future.