Tassie Pride

About Tassie Pride

Tassie Pride is a Hydroponics farming venture focusing on glasshouse capsicum production from seedling preparation through to customer distribution centres. Tassie Pride was established as a business committed to making a difference in the community. We value integrity and operate our business with honesty and transparency, as a company we strive for excellence.

Tassie Pride History

Tassie Pride is located on the coastal strip of Lillico between Devonport and Turners Beach, within the municipal boundaries of the Devonport City Council.

Tassie Pride adopted a methodology identifying and engaging external consultants, specialists and industry. This model has been proven with the successful completion of stage three of business growth. The structure of Tassie Pride is a 50-50% ownership between the Joubert Family Trust and Kapiris Bros. Tassie Pride vision is to be a major, vibrant and competitive stakeholder in the Australian hydroponics capsicum growing industry.

Growing Techniques

Our setup growing model is based upon Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and is a hybrid organic and nutrient recirculating operation. Tassie Pride undertakes all organic growing principles and applies them to CEA these includes the following:

Climate Control Thermal Screens
Environmental Control System
Fog Cooling
Fertigation

At Tassie Pride we combine hydroponic technology with a controlled environment to achieve the highest quality produce. Within our greenhouse structure we can control the ambient temperature, humidity and light levels allowing us to grow virtually on a year-round basis.

Our recirculating hydroponic CEA system provides us the following benefits:

Recirculating CEA system where 100% of the water is being used for growing.
No water is lost to evaporation
Uses a fraction of the minerals that are required for outdoor crops.
Uses 1/3 to 1/4 of the space that traditional outdoor agriculture uses
No growing medium to dispose of, our Coco Peat Coir is mulch into compost.
Virtually no waste to contaminate the environment.

Combine these factors with increasing public concern over food safety, pesticide residues and fungicide use; it is understandable why there is such a demand for Tassie Pride greenhouse capsicums.

Type of crop we grow

A number of different varieties of glasshouse capsicums grow in the 3 hectare glasshouse. We grow 3 varieties of capsicums; green, red and yellow. Variety choice is dependent on their performance from season to season, coupled with project future light intensity. The research and development team continually experiment with various new varieties to ensure that we obtain the ideal plants for the coming season.

Our Growing Season

Greenhouse capsicums are emerging as a significant new commodity item in Australia due to the high quality, excellent presentation and long shelf life. We plan our growing and production season to correspond with the consumer demand for good quality, capsicums between the months of September through to June.

Our packing facilities

We have a 540m 2 Packing shed fitted with a 3-line 9-outlet AWETA grader; an ULMA Florida flow pack machine and a 150m 2 cool room. All capsicums are packed and dispatched on the day they are picked.

Packing and distribution process

At Tassie Pride we focus on the following key performance areas to manage our packing and distribution process.

Productivity
Product quality
Plant management
Management of Fixed Costs

Food safety

Up to June 2010 we operated with SQF 2000 from July 2010 operated under the Freshcare Food Safety and Quality 3^rd Edition.

Tassie Pride Differentiation

At Tassie Pride we differentiate our self from other growers through implementing a commercial Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) model using a unique hybrid of Hydroponic growing techniques, organic farming principles and a preventative Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan.

Retail and wholesale buyers recognise the advantages of Tassie Pride capsicums through:

Attention to detail in production that equates to consistent quality
CEA production that uses less agricultural chemicals
An extended season as climate conditions are carefully controlled
Premium product attracting a premium market price
Enhanced shelve life (generally recognised as double that of field grown product)