Home gardeners across Australia are benefiting from the high quality and disease-free potato seeds Agronico grows in Tasmania's fertile soil.
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Agronico's chief executive officer Robert Graham said the soil is ideal for growing healthy vegetables, and Agronico are producing excellent quality seeds which are now being offered to home gardeners.
Diversifying their customer base in 2020, Agronico dipping their toe in the home gardening market.
"We had numerous requests from home gardeners through our website so decided to open online sales of some of our varieties to this market and it's proven to be a very popular move," Mr Graham said. "In 2020 we had over 700 orders and 2021 has seen those sales double.
"We offered 10 varieties and some interesting ones like purple sapphire and old Tassie favourites including Kennebec and the best-selling Pink Eye and Dutch Cream.
"We found there was a rising interest in growing vegetables at home," he said. "Potatoes are ideal for novices, they are very easy to grow, and you'd be surprised at the many health benefits when you grow your own.
"Although there are ideal times, gardeners in most states don't have to be too fussy about when they plant their crop as they can plant most of the year unless they are in an area with frosts."
Mr Graham said Agronico's certified seed potato varieties are mass production varieties, and there's a reason they are so popular; they are easier to grow, have bigger yields and taste amazing.
"Despite the wet autumn in 2020 we were able to harvest more than 90 per cent of our crop, keep people employed and open to the domestic market. Autumn 2021 was a much drier harvest, and we have all varieties available.
"The current planting season has been challenging, frequent rains delayed commercial potato planting throughout eastern Australia and there are predictions of a shortage of potatoes next year.
"This means a very difficult season for farmers, but will, no doubt, encourage home gardeners to grow their own potatoes," he said.
"We are happy to help home gardeners and market gardeners by providing good quality seed.
"We are enjoying this new market and our customers are telling us that they love growing their own potatoes, astounded at the yield they are getting," he said.
"Everyone benefits, one customer had so many potatoes he donated 80 kilos of his crop for community lunches run at his local church."
"It is important to us that we make the lives of our customers better," said Mr Graham.
Agronico has grown from an agricultural consultancy business working with individual farmers into one of Australia's largest seed potato producers, now counting home gardeners among their group of customers.
