Nelson based Proper Crisps is branching out across the ditch – the company has opened a factory in Australia after chip sales there doubled in 2021. Based in the Yarra Valley, near Melbourne, the factory did its first cooks for the 2022 season in the middle of March. Proper Crisps are New Zealand’s most awarded chip.
As Catherine Hubbard reports for Stuff, the company worked with an agronomist and local farmers trialling potato varieties to find a substitute for the Agria potato it uses in New Zealand, which is not commonly grown in Australia.
Proper Crisps general manager Andy Leonard said the company was working through three varieties of potato in Australia – Pelican, Rumba, and Verdi, trying to match as closely as possible the spud used in Aotearoa. “Yellow flesh was obviously a key part of that. Agria is a very nice golden yellow that looks beautiful and actually tastes beautiful as well.”
Source: Stuff. Read the full story here
Photo: It’s all about the quality as staff check the cooked crisps on the production line at the Nelson factory. Courtesy and credit: Martin de Ruyter/STUFF
