By Megan Frankel-Vaughan
Tony Martin never envisaged following in his parents and grandparents footsteps to become a dried grape grower.
The third generation Merbein grower has recently retired after more than four decades of contribution to the industry.
After moving away to study and later marrying his wife Kay in Melbourne, the couple was looking for some space to raise their two children.
It was around that time that Mr Martin’s father was looking to sell the family dried grape block.
“My wife and I, and our two children came up in June 1981 and I took over this property from my father and mother, and they’d taken over from his father and mother after the Second World War,” he said.
Kay got a job as a solicitor, while Mr Martin got to work on the block and immediately became involved in the Merbein Dried Fruit Branch.
They bought more properties, and also expanded into wine grapes.
Mr Martin said it was at the time when CSIRO was active in trellis design and industry research.
By the mid-’90s, he’d made the decision not to plant any more sultanas, but rather look at other sultana-type varieties that were higher yielding.
“Because we were summer pruning, we needed something early and we needed something late,” he said.
A grower trip to California in 1995 opened their eyes to different varieties that could work for the Australian industry.
“I got really interested in growing grapes that were early or middle season fruit other than sultanas, that were still sultana type, so that kept me going in that vein,” he said.
By the early 2000s, as winegrapes started to decline, Mr Martin started converting winegrapes back to dried fruit.
During that time, Mr Martin also had trial patches on another property under plant agreement with CSIRO.
“I’ve always been very keen on that side of the industry – you’ve got to change,” he said. “You can’t just sit and do nothing otherwise we get nowhere.
“The varieties now are more fruitful. We don’t have to worry about the yield because it will be there if you look after your vines.”
In addition to varieties research, Mr Martin maintained an interest and involvement in river management, irrigation, and environmental issues.
He was a board member of the former Australian Dried Fruits Association for 13 years, a time when he said the ADFA was a “powerhouse of horticulture”.
He had input into the Murray Darling Basin Commission, was on the Catchment Management Authority board for 17 years and later chaired the Horticulture Australia Limited dried fruit research body, in addition to roles on other groups and boards.
He was on the DFA board for nine years, finishing up last year.
“I was lucky to be involved in all of that over the years,” he said.
“Now it’s time for someone else to have a go.”
Mr Martin said the biggest shift in on-farm operations he’d seen in his time in the industry was a change to mechanised systems.
After exiting the winegrape industry, around 2010, Mr Martin said it was time to start thinking about what was next for the dried fruit industry.
“It used to cost a lot of money to pay people to come through and hand cut your canes,” he said. “We got a guy to build a hydraulic cutter bar, which meant two of us could comfortably wet and cut eight acres a day. We went from having 15 people working down to two.”
In about 2018-2019, the next big jump in becoming a mechanised industry came when Mr Martin brought photos of a winter pruner, he’d been working on to a DFA workshop.
For three years, he had winter pruned using the machine he’d developed, and the workshop was the first time showing it publicly.
“People thought it had potential,” he said.
Now, several growers in the industry winter prune using similar systems, while DFA’s pruner project developed a robotic version.
Mr Martin said the highlight of his time in the industry was simply “being involved and making decisions that will help the industry down the track”.
In doing so, he’s given more than four decades of service to the industry.
“And I was happy to do it,” he said.
“I think Kay and I can look back and say we’ve really enjoyed the past 40 years – the good, the bad and everything that goes with it.”
As he looks ahead to the future of the industry, Mr Martin believes there are two priorities for the industry: mechanisation and varieties.
“We will be heading down the track of corporate farming – it’s inevitable,” he said.
“That’s why we need to be thinking of ideas to keep things moving and, if we’re going to have someone come in from the corporate world, we need to make it easier for them.”
Dried Fruits Australia CEO Thomas Cheung said he had much respect and appreciation for Mr Martin’s passion, contribution and dedication to the industry over four decades.
“We will miss him, and I will continue to bother him for his experience, knowledge and expertise moving forward,” he said.
Chair Mark King shared similar sentiments and thanked Mr Martin for his years of dedication, wishing him well in retirement.
“He was one who would trial all the latest varieties and then report how they performed back to DFA,” Mr King said. “Anybody who has done this realises it’s a big commitment.
“Tony did many trips overseas to attend food fairs and gave freely of his time and expertise. He was a great ambassador for our industry and Australia.”
– With Currant News
