Murray Now

Frank Garreffa was only 15 years old when he made the journey to Australia from Southern Italy in 1953, accompanied by his 13 year old cousin. He joined his brother as a labourer on existing farms in the lower Murray region of New South Wales, with Frank eventually purchasing 7 acres in 1957 (Eustonia Vineyards). Frank bought more property in 1966, and developed the land into a premier table grape growing property.

Eustonia Vineyards now occupies approximately 80 acres in Euston NSW. Francis Garreffa is a third generation family business owner and runs the properties with his wife Sonia and mum and dad John and Rosemary.

Francis has an accounting background and is keen to take the family business into a new direction. With 70% of Eustonia’s table grapes exported to Asia and Europe, Francis decided that exporting direct would be the way forward.

With only a handful of growers in the region exporting without intermediary agents, Francis believed this was a definite benefit to the business, “It gives us greater control over the export transaction and entitles us to better profit margins” explains Francis. The Department of Primary Industry and Austrade have assisted Francis in hooking up with direct buyers and supporting them with the export process.

The table grape industry in Australia has many strengths within the global market. Australia is well placed logistically to the Asian market and is the only country among its competitors that is able to air freight grapes to Asia competitively. “There is even an upside to our climate fluctuations,” Francis explains, “the combination of less water, climate extremes and our growing style compared to say Chile or South Africa seems to give our fruit a more rounded flavor offering a unique quality product.”

Farming has come a long way in the 50 years that Eustonia have been in business and the family has seen many changes including the upgrade from flood irrigation to under-vine sprinklers and dripper irrigation. 18 months ago the family business applied for grant funding with the New South Wales Rural Assistance Authority (RAA). RAA run programs that encourage self reliance and adaptation to change. The funding was successful and they established an irrigation scheduling system that uses an electronic probe/sensor which acts as a soil moisture monitoring device.

Francis is an active committee member for the Robinvale and District table grape growers association and supports investment in new technology and market research for the table grape industry, he backs the levy of one cent per kilogram of grapes produced in Australia that goes towards investment in research and development and marketing.

The Garreffa’s have had challenges in the industry over the years, but with good land and soil, water and nutrient management practices they have stayed on top and continue to thrive. “Our family has been in the region for 50 years now, and I can see myself and my family being here for many years to come,” says Francis.

For further information on Eustonia Vineyards or to contact Francis please visit: Eustonia Vineyards website