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Richard Hawkes
34
Boneo, Mornington Peninsula,
Victoria
Hawkes Produce
Potatoes (Kipfler, Ranger
Russet, Exton, Nicola and
Sebago), spring onions, baby
carrots, parsley and radish
30
Young grower profile
The butcher, baker and
candlestick maker! General
Operations Manager, overseeing
day-to-day operations after
ground preparation (planting,
fertilising, irrigation,
harvesting and packing). My
Dad is in charge of ground
preparation and my sister is
involved with the planting,
harvesting and packing.
They vary a little depending on
the time of year, however they
generally start with coordinating
orders, setting tasks for the
work crews, harvesting potatoes,
washing and packing the
product for the day and
then loading the truck to
head off to market.
Talking to the customers that
come to our farm gate to
purchase product and hear
about how much they like the
product we grow. We have many
customers that drive over an
hour with the sole purpose of
purchasing bags of potatoes for
their family and friends.
Expanding the operation to
meet our customers’ increasing
An experiment that got out of
control! I started my career
as an agronomist with E.E.
Muir and Sons in Thorpdale in
2003-04 and started playing
around with a quarter of an acre
of different fertiliser programs
on our family property in
Boneo. I had no plans when
it came to selling the potatoes
and given we have a good
amount of passing traffic, my
Dad suggested I should sell
the Sebagos from the shed. I
made enough money to pay for
a holiday so I thought maybe I
would do a handful more the
next year and then it grew and
grew and grew (now I don’t have
time to have holidays).
Boneo, Victoria