The Vital Vegetables Program was a trans-Tasman collaborative research and development joint venture charged with developing and commercialising new high-value, health-promoting vegetables for the Australian and New Zealand horticulture industries. At its inception, the philosophy of Vital Vegetables was to provide a research, germplasm and marketing framework to enable Australian and New Zealand vegetable growers to move their industry towards differentiated, higher-value products that delivered enhanced health benefits to consumers. This shift in thinking was in part driven by recognition of the growing strength of low-wage economies in the international vegetable market, reducing the viability of commodity vegetable production in Australia and New Zealand coupled with the desire to grow profitability of the local vegetable industry. Addressing this trend remained a priority for both the Australian and New Zealand vegetable industries.

Vitalvegetables® products had been developed for their naturally high nutrient levels, great taste, flavour and long shelf life. To achieve this, the project first established research principles and analytical methods that supported production of high-health vegetables. Each step of production from seed selection, agronomy, harvesting, processing, packaging to distribution was investigated and optimised to ensure consistent year-round quality of vitalvegetables products.

The outcome of Vital Vegetables 2 (VV2) was a mechanism and proof of concept that supported the commercialisation and marketing of differentiated vegetable products in the global market. The ultimate goal of this program was to increase vegetable consumption by providing consumers with a series of new health benefit value propositions. The benefits were embodied in vitalvegetables sub-brands: vitalheartTM, vitalsightTM, vitalbonesTM, vitalfibreTM and vitalimmunityTM.

Vitalvegetables® was a new category of vegetables that had a strong focus on consumer health, and had been successfully introduced to the New Zealand market (October 2012). The first five products marketed by the New Zealand Vital Vegetables Marketing Partners include vitalheart™, vitalsight™ and vitalbones™ salad mixes; vitalimmunity™ slaw; and vitalimmunity™ medley. Each product contained naturally high levels of nutrients known to be good for health, and each serve contained at least 25 per cent of the suggested daily intake of antioxidants.

This project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the research and development levies listed below and contributions from the Australian Government. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.

• Vegetable Fund