Siblings quench thirst for innovation

The family has been growing fruit in the Adelaide Hills for 35 years, and operate 150 hectares of orchards at Nairne, Woodside, Echunga and Ashton. Their plantings include apples, pears, cherries and a small area of nectarines.

Joyce, 25, and Joseph, 22, joined the business about 18 months ago after spending time at university and working off-farm. Joseph had been studying business management and doing building work, while Joyce had studied and gained experience across a broad range of industries. Already a trained chemical engineer, she then worked with dairy processor Mexican Express - discovering her passion for the food industry in the process - and recently completed a law degree.

The siblings felt a strong pull to return home, and are determined to build on the innovative work of their father Tony and his brother Joe.

For more photos from the Ceralovo family's Ashton orchard, click on the photo above.

One of Tony's riskiest decisions - but one that has certainly paid dividends - was to build an on-site juicing plant at the height of a market downturn.

"Seven years ago there was a massive drop in the price of juicing apples," Joyce said. "Growers would be selling them interstate and essentially paying the freight and not getting paid for their apples. Dad decided he was going to dump his juice apples rather than push them into a flooded market, and that's when he realised that he needed to do something, because we're one of the largest apple growers in SA.

"Dad has a talent for being a bit of a visionary. He brought in someone really experienced in the juice industry to help set up the plant to make sure it was viable before we started. I think he put in place every control he could without being able to tell the future.

"He takes risks, but they're calculated and I think that's why he does so well in this business."

They began by selling juice under their Ashton Valley Fresh brand, before securing bulk contracts which have become the foundation of the business.

"We didn't start off with any customers, so we bottled our own juice for the first year, and then slowly bigger orders started coming in." she said.

"We had Nippy's come on board in the first or second year, and the Hills Cider Company came on board that year as well, and things have steadily grown from there."

Nippy's purchases the family's juice in bulk, before further processing and mixing it to create the juices seen in supermarkets and cafés across the state.

Joyce, who is Ashton Valley Fresh's quality assurance and research and development manager, and production manager Joseph, have been heavily involved in an ongoing upgrade of the juicing plant.

"We're just upgrading our plant because we were running at double the capacity we were designed to run at, and that meant really long shifts, and if we had a breakdown it would take ages to catch up again," Joyce said.

The family earned the SARDI award for innovation at the 2014 SA Food Awards for their unique enzyme distribution system.

During the juicing process, enzymes are applied to break down the fibres in the apples to get a better extraction of juice. Enzymes are a huge expense, and were previously drip-fed onto the top of the tank – a system Joyce thought could be dramatically improved.

"We needed a larger surface area of spray to make the enzymes work more effectively and we decided we needed a spray system," she said. "I looked and there was nothing prefabricated, so we realised we had to make our own.

"Within the first week we realised we had a 10 per cent increase in yield, which is massive, and a decrease in enzyme usage of up to 50pc – incredible since enzymes are our most expensive input."