Australian fresh produce group Nutrano has confirmed it has taken an equity stake in leading citrus packing operator Keenan Produce.
Today's (15 July) announcement comes after discussions between Nutrano and Keenan’s founder and owner, Paul Keenan, over the past few months.
Paul will stay actively involved in running the Griffith-based business, with no change to the grower engagement, operations management and sales effort as a result of the newly formed equity alliance.
George Haggar, CEO of Nutrano Produce Group, said both organisations have taken an important step towards joining forces and accelerating their joint growth plans in citrus packing and marketing.
“With Nutrano and Keenan Produce joining forces, an opportunity is created to ramp up the citrus programme in the Riverina region [in southern New South Wales] both domestically and for export,” Haggar explained.
“The [Riverina] region offers a favourable mix of citrus varieties, crop timing and climatic conditions that will complement the substantial presence that Nutrano has in the Sunraysia region. Early indications are that Nutrano and Keenan Produce will post a record season in 2019 with a plan to be even bigger in 2020.”
Along with citrus, Keenan Produce also packs cherries and sugar plums for a number of growers in the Riverina region. Nutrano has confirmed it will continue to invest in this aspect of the operations with the view to growing sales both domestically and internationally.
