Cos pushes Aust fruit to the fore

Using their prizewinning grapes - which earlier this year were awarded best overall dried fruit at the Mildura Field Days - they developed the Cosi Grape brand.

"If we can get a volume of sale, we can double our money," Cos said.

Formerly growing a 60:40 split of dried grapes/table grapes, they have since decided to focus on dried fruit.

"Tablegrapes are a young man's game," Cos said.

"We still have some, but I'm getting older.

"We had always been a domestic supplier of tablegrapes, selling to Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, but when export prices dropped, tablegrapes meant for exports were dumped on the domestic market.

"It came to the point that prices did not cover the cost-of-production."

Cos said farming was in their blood.

"I do come from a family that has always had vineyards," he said.

"My father came to Australia from the old country (Italy) in 1952. He had vineyards, but they were very different to the ones I have here.

"I have a very strong connection to the land because I was born here.

"My block used to be mum's property, I grew up in the house next door, I also used to farm with my brother until I bought him out."

Cos said that historically the block had always produced good fruit.

"I decided to have a go this year and enter some fruit in the awards so I was really pleased to win," he said.

The Dichieras have 22 hectares - 14ha of which are in active production.

They produce about 1400 tonnes of wet grapes a year.

Figs are also grown, dried and used in the Cosi Grape brand.

"The reality is that all grapes can be dried," Cos said.

"The Thompson sultanas are our biggest drying variety."

Besides value-adding, Cos was also keen to see more Australians eating locally produced products.

"I used to be involved in the hospitality industry and I was always asked 'where can we buy local dried fruit?' by visitors," he said.

So he decided to "do something about it" and start marketing his own fruit.

"I wanted to have the ability to extract a decent price for dried fruit," Cos said.

"As a fruit producer, I've had to do the hard yards with compliance and quality assurance - particularly with fresh, tablegrapes - and understand it well.

"It was very daunting to start with but I really had nothing to fear because we weren't recouping costs and had nothing to lose."

Cos said the initial prospect was daunting because, after growing the fruit, he had to pack and market it.

"Rome wasn't built in a day," he said. "Aussie fruit has disappeared off the shelves and I want to change this.

"It takes time to build up business, but I will endeavour to bring 100 per cent Aussie fruit back to Aussie tables."

He started experimenting with different dried fruit products - dried clusters: a boutique way of presenting grapes for sale dried as a bunch.

Having perfected his drying methods, he decided to experiment with other products, including a snackpack with almonds and sultanas.

* Full report in Stock Journal, September 11, 2014 issue.