Our Story
AN EXCITING NEW CHAPTER FOR PECAN FARMERS & BUYERS IN AUSTRALIA HAS BEGUN….
The Pecan Farmers’ Co-operative of Australia Story (Est. 2020)
We have a story. It’s a story about a small industry of growers, from all across Australia, banding together to establish a Co-operative that will achieve great things for the farmer and grow the pecan market.
This Co-op will support farmers, establish long term partnerships with the marketplace, and take premium quality, nutritious, Australian pecans from the farmgate to the kitchens of restaurants and families locally and abroad.
Our membership is large enough to provide strong market presence and scale, but small enough to care, treating all both our farmers and our buyers as a priority, regardless of their size.
This Co-op introduces of a new supplier of Australian pecans to the domestic wholesale and retail market, giving these same buyers the choice to support a 100% farmer owned, Australian small business. It will create competition and improved continuity of pecan supply in the market place throughout the entire year.
The Pecan Farmer’s Co-operative of Australia Ltd, is 100% farmer owned, with 100% of profits going back to the farmer and investing in local business and the industry’s future.
The PFCA Ltd will always value relationships with our suppliers and buyers above all else.
We hold integrity in the highest regard and endeavour to operate in an open, honest and ethical way always.
The PFCA co-operative is the next step in succession of the highly regarded “Pecans Australian”, providing a new market option for Australian Pecan farmers that they can continue to trust into the 2020 decade.
In 2008 the “Pecans Australia” business was established by Lismore pecan growers, Geoff & Debbie Bugden, in a bid to survive after pecan commodity prices offered to farmers plummeted to $1.80/kg.
The couples business philosophy was to work tirelessly on behalf of its suppliers (other local farmers) to raise the price paid for Australian pecans from that low of $1.80/kg in 2008 to over $6.00/kg in 2018 (10 years later).
Over the past 12 years, “Pecans Australia” has established proven, reliable and profitable, long term business relationships with both local and international markets, always offering a “fair market price for the farmer”.
Their hard work and dedication has also lead to Australia’s first Certified Organic Pecan Nut-In-Shell market with the price being paid for Organic nut in shell to $7.50/kg in 2018.
The business of “Pecans Australia” has continued to grow from strength to strength, offering growers not only consistently high prices for their product but a full logistic service that includes freight, cleaning, sorting, drying, sizing, distribution and marketing of Australian pecan Nut-In-Shell across the world. Today, the business continues to grow and in 2020 has assimilated into the new Pecan Farmers' Co-operative of Australian. The new structure of the business will allow for Australian Pecan farmers to collaborate under one banner for the benefit of the farmer.
With Geoff & Debbie Bugden still at the “helm” of the new Pecan Farmers' Co-operative of Australian, growers can expect the same level of service, reliability and price that they have historically received whilst investing into the long term future of their own individual businesses, the co-op and the Australian Pecan industry.
Joining Geoff & Debbie in the directorship of the co-operative, you will see some fresh faces with different skill sets, however all Directors share the same passion and enthusiasm for the industry and its farmers to succeed. New structures and new faces will ensure succession and continuity for the Pecan Farmers' Co-operative of Australian and long term certainty for our farmers.
The PFCA will always value relationships with our suppliers and buyers above all else. We hold integrity in the highest regard and endeavour to operate in an open, honest and ethical way always.