OUR STORY
The Harvest Moon story is one of family, humble beginnings, a passion for farming, and a whole lot of persistence.
In 1981 founding member Neil Armstrong entered the marketplace trading in potatoes, onions, and pumpkins as Harvest Moon. The name of the company arising from Neil’s name and its association with the first man to walk on the moon. With family by his side, and a mere handful of co-workers, some off which are still with the company today, Harvest Moon would slowly begin to take shape. First supplying local greengrocers in Tasmania, then interstate markets, and finally, ‘one giant leap’ for Harvest Moon into the export markets of Japan.
Over the first nine years, growth meant an increase in land holdings to allow for rising market demands and new product lines. It’s at this time Neil would find a business partner in Mark Kable, who shared his passion for agriculture. Ingenuity and hard work were key, and time would show neither would shy away from the next big idea. As Neil once said, “The decision to try new ideas was never taken lightly, and not all of them were successful, but we had to have a go!”
Some of the partnerships success stories include the pioneering of farming in Fiji, the positioning of Harvest Moon as the Australian Licensee for Dutch Potato Breeder HZPC (the largest potato breeder in the world), become shareholders in a NZ potato packing business for ten years, be founding partners in Fresh Freight Tasmania, and innovators in fresh vegetable production in the Northern Midlands. They would also go on to work with NZ growers in onion seed breeding and begin a brand line for snackable vegetables trademarked as ‘Snackables’. While current projects have them working with industry leaders in the UK and USA.
As their young families grew up on the farm, their Harvest Moon family also grew. Together they have increased Harvest Moon’s reach into the global markets of Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Building the company into the largest vegetable producer in Tasmania and placing it in the top five in Australia.
Harvest Moon’s expansion took shape through the purchase of packing and distribution centres in Werribee Victoria and Gatton Queensland, and 1,000 hectares of farming irrigation land called Glenfyne, located in Narrandera in New South Wales. Both VIC and QLD locations work to provide nationwide exposure through markets and retail networks, while the NSW location provides an extended growing season.
Harvest Moon’s production reach has also grown thanks to long term partnerships with over eighty private growers, who deliver high quality vegetables that perfectly complement Harvest Moon’s own-grown fresh produce and enable Harvest Moon to provide 90,000 tons of fresh produce annually to national and international markets.
The Forth location in Tasmania remains the epicentre of the company with its logistics base, farms, administration, sorting, washing and packing facilities continuing to grow to this day. There has been many trial and error changes to produce lines over the years, which eventually found consistency in the growth of beans, cauliflower, lettuce, baby spinach, swede, and beetroot, to name a few, while the company’s main produce lines carrots, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli remain strong.
Today Executive Director Neil Armstrong and Managing Director Mark Kable continue to embrace fresh ideas and modern change throughout Harvest Moon, also trading as Forth Farm Produce Pty. Ltd. and Vegie Express. Sights are firmly set on further development for Harvest Moon’s Victoria, and NSW locations, and with passions still as high as they were all those years ago, and family and industry partnerships stronger than ever, it could be suggested that the Harvest Moon story is just getting started.
