Family-owned gourmet pasta producers Bellata Gold have taken the value adding prize for their pasta-manufacturing business. Their pasta is 100%-traceable and chemical-free, and is farmed, milled and manufactured by the family business using state-of-the-art techniques.

The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Agribusiness Value Adding Award recognises outstanding achievements by businesses that have excelled in adding value to products, through a customer focus, thereby developing a sustainable competitive advantage.

The RIRDC Agribusiness Value Adding Award was announced by RIRDC Managing Director Dr Peter O’Brien at the NAB Agribusiness Awards for Excellence 2006 dinner in Melbourne this evening.

“From their first sales of 500 packets of pasta at a local food fair just three years ago, Bellata Gold have shown extraordinary growth, with production currently around 8,000 to 10,000 packets of pasta per week,” Dr O’Brien said.

Combined with a strong focus on production for export – including to Dubai, the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom – the Tamworth-based company sells its premium product mainly restaurants and the gourmet food market.

Bellata Gold’s success is a response to consumer demand for traceability in produce, a growth of the “slow-food” movement and a rediscovery of the flavours of regional cooking.

 “Through value adding Bellata Gold has taken a commodity, raw durum wheat, with a value of 18c per kg, and transformed it into a product with a value of up to $11 per kg,” Dr O’Brien said. “These production gains have all occurred within a family-owned and operated company”.

“This type of value adding plays an important role for our rural industries, maximising returns to Australian farmers and establishing long-term markets for our products”.

The capacity of Australian rural enterprises to adopt innovation and improve their performance has allowed them to rise to the challenge of international competition, despite the challenges of adverse conditions, he said.

“RIRDC has a focus on improving the sustainability, resilience and profitability of rural Australia through industry-focused innovation,” Dr O’Brien said.

“Bellata Gold is a great example of how agribusiness can use innovation to create profits through a resilient and sustainable enterprise”.

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Media enquiries:
Martin Field – RIRDC Public Affairs Manager: 02 6272 4735