This couple turns unwanted fruit into big business

At a small, family owned Gin Gin factory in Queensland's Bundaberg region, hundreds of thousands of mangoes that do not meet supermarket standards are saved from the trash.

Points keys: Low-grade fruit destined to rot on trees finds new market as dehydrated products Gin Gin and Dry company processes around 4,000 tonnes of fruit per year Gourmet fruit is a creative solution to agricultural waste

Cameron and Muppi Dean own and operate a dehydration facility where they process less than perfect, mostly tropical fruit into a range of gourmet dried products.

"It helps the industry to use their B and C grades produced," Dean said.

"Obviously that also helps that premium or Grade A [fruit] box that they send to the market."< /p>

Ms. Dean said being able to find a use for otherwise discarded produce is especially beneficial for farmers whose fruit has no other processing options, such as mangoes.

"But at other times we use a product that would otherwise be completely thrown away," she said.

"So there will usually be quite a bit of tons that will just be dumped in the pen, maybe the cows will eat them, or else they will just rot."

Farmer Will Thompson says the opportunity to send inferior citrus for dehydration was too good to pass up. (Landline: Courtney Wilson)

About 4,000 tons of fresh fruit pass through the factory each year.

"Mangos make up the largest part of our range", said said Mrs. Dean.

"But we also dry pineapples [and] we do apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries [and] figs.

The couple also dabbled in citrus drying with oranges, blood oranges, grapefruits, lemons and limes, as well as some weird tomatoes.

No sugar or sulfur is added to the fruit, unlike many foreign imports.(Landline: Courtney Wilson)

The factory employs up to 80 employees.

During the mango season, the factory operates seven days a week with fruit transported by truck from across the upper reaches of the country.

"With mangoes, we start in the Territory, in Berry Springs," Mr. Dean said.

< p class= "_39n3n">"Then we descend to Katherine, then we come to North Queensland in the Burdekin area - a bit outside of Mareeba, - then we start around Rockhampton, then into the Bundaberg area."Seasons Exceptional ns mean more waste

This summer uh, mango growers in central Queensland enjoyed excellent growing and picking conditions, resulting in a bumper harvest.