By Monique Ebrington
THE Coldstream company Australian Harvest was a cut above the rest at the World Cheese Awards, winning the International Product of the Show prize at this year’s demonstration in Ireland.
The company was awarded the title by a panel of judges from Britain’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco.
Australian Harvest owner Martin Cheney said he was thrilled when his eldest son Joshua, who spent the three days at the show, phoned to tell him about the win.
“He was on the phone to me as soon as we won it,” Martin Cheney said.
“I was very excited. It was a really good vindication of all the work we’ve been doing for all these years.”
After selling his successful pharmaceutical company, Mr Cheney started Australian Harvest in March 1993, seeing a need for an Australian gourmet food company. At the time most gourmet food was being imported.
He now sells gourmet food out of the Coldstream store that, he says, aims to create a healthy dietary balance through food rather than tablets.
“If you’re doing something not so good on one hand, it’s good to balance it out on the other,” he said.
“Gourmet foods are often associated with not being good for you. Bio-grape is an award-winning food for its taste, but it’s also designed to offset any harmful effects for your diet.”
Already sold in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States, Mr Cheney says the recognition was a great kick start to launching the range in Europe.
“Winning that award, on the first major show we’ve done to launch the product in Europe, was fantastic,” he said.
Australian Harvest will have a tastings stall at the Yering Station Farmers Market this Sunday 21 December.
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