Australia: Wray Organic receives awards

Wray Organic, a leading Queensland organic produce retailer, was awarded both the Queensland Award and the National Award for Organic Retailer of the Year 2009. The presentation was made by Tim Mulherin, Queensland Minister for Primary Industries and Fisheries, at the Queensland launch of National Organic Week organised by the Biological Farmers of Australia and the Centre for Organic & Resource Enterprises. A highlight of National Organic Week 2009, the retailer awards were judged by an expert panel including a large-scale organic producer, a prominent organic food manufacturer and wholesaler, a consumer representative and representatives from the organisers BFA and CORE. Nominated businesses were judged on motivation, promotion, interface with local suppliers, environmental initiatives and customer loyalty and promotion strategies.    

Nominees were required to be Australia-based and to source more than 70 % of their fresh horticultural product as “certified organic” or “certified organic in-conversion”. Deborah Wray, owner of Wray Organic stores, will display the certificate and impressive engraved silver plate in rotation at each of their four stores, BFA reports. “We’re excited and honoured to receive the awards,” she says. “These awards are great for industry – and great for consumers; it gives us something to aspire to and keeps lifting the bar.”  The other winners of state awards are About Life, Rozelle, NSW Award; Passion Foods, South Melbourne, VIC Award; and The Organic Market & Café, Stirling, Adelaide, SA Award.

BFA