Goulburn Valley growers team up to sell massive orchard region

An almost 500ha slice of Victoria’s best orchards, close to the size of the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh, is up for grabs in an almost $100m overhaul of the state’s fruit supply.

A quartet of Victorian fruitgrowers linked to the Goulburn Valley have teamed up to list their farms in an “exit plan” which puts land that produces tens of millions of apples, pears and plums every year on the market with a $24.75m asking price.

It is one of two amalgamated fruit farming hubs currently now for sale in the region, and spans 254hawhile producing 30,495 bins of fruit a year, equivalent to up to 76 million pieces of fruit.

The four families’ holdings included in the latest offering cover the Riversby orchard of former Fruit Growers Victoria chairman Ian Bolitho.

He is joined by Silver Orchards, run by Maurice and Rien Silverstein, the Central Park pear orchard operated by third-generation farmers Matt, Jason and Mark Rachele, as well as Mark and Jenny Morey’s Marenny Vale Orchards sites.

Locations include around Shepparton East, Bunbartha, Nathalia and Coomboona.

The combined listing follows the offering of the Goulburn Valley region’s 216ha Brooklyn Project, which combined six properties for an anticipated $70m sale earlier this year.

In total, the two listings would produce in the vicinity of 150 million pieces of fruit a year, and cover about 470ha of land — the same size as the Melbourne suburb of Bentleigh.

Ray White’s Jason Hellyer is representing the latest farming families planning a sale, and said “this is their exit plan”.

Mr Hellyer said they were anticipating the listings would fit the appetite of a mix of growers who might consider one or two of the farms, plus institutional investors who might snap up the full lot.

He’s also not ruling out international interest after early contact in the effort to sell what he is calling a dominant force in the fresh fruit market, which combined has more than 254,000 trees and has access to more than 271 megalitres of water.

“Whether a buyer takes the whole aggregation, leveraging the 5000sq m packing facility at Central Park or secures a single site like Silver Orchards, they are stepping into established businesses with decades of proven success,” Mr Hellyer said.

A third-generation fruit grower, Mr Bolitho said after 46 years he was ready to retire and let his orchard go to the next level, but was doing so with “mixed emotions”.

“We have enjoyed fruit growing in the Goulburn Valley, it is incredibly rewarding to nurture a fruit tree from winter dormant pruning, through the spring flowering, and on to harvesting juicy sweet fruit that people will enjoy,” he said.

“Our orchards are designed and managed with the long-term vision of sustainable long-term profits.”

He added that at around 246ha the combined holdings of his part of the offering was among the biggest you would be likely to see.

For another similar-sized operation to also be on the market, he said there “wouldn’t be too many single entities with as much as that”.

The Silverstein family said after raising five sons on their farm and spending decades on agricultural research they too were ready to retire from the farm that produces apples, pears and plums.

“Maurice was born on this property, and I moved here in 1987, it has been our whole lives,” Ms Silverstein said.

“It’s bittersweet to sell, but there is a real sense of optimism for the industry’s future with export markets growing, and we want to see a new owner take that potential to the next level.”

Expressions of interest in the family farms close on July 1.

Agricultural real estate firm LAWD’s Georgia Hole said the Brooklyn Project site remained for sale, but had attracted interest.