Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to talk about a wonderful food and wine festival, the Taste of the Huon, which was held in my electorate over the long weekend on 9 and 10 March this year and has a 22-year history. We had a record at this Taste of the Huon: more than 20,000 people came on the first day and they were expecting another 10,000 on the second day, on that Monday morning of the long weekend.

It is held at Ranelagh Showgrounds, which is about 30 minutes south of Hobart in my electorate and part of the great Huon Valley. The Huon is well known for its apples but it is also very well known for its salmon. The salmon industry has had a great revival in Tasmania and is growing at more than $1 million a week. Mushrooms, vineyards, wines, great berries—and my favourite, raspberries—and truffles are also farmed in the area, and it is a great display of local produce.

The stallholders at Taste numbered more than 100 this year—up from 80 last year—and, as I said, record crowds came to see them. There were a very broad range of stalls from the well-known Cascade beer to our ciders—a revival of the cider industry is also happening in Tasmania and we have some great local ciders from the Huon.

Frank's Ciders has been in the Huon since about 1836 and is a wonderful little boutique cider producer. The well-known Willie Smiths was started up by Andrew Smith just a few years ago with his grandfather Willie's great recipe—I am sure that I will get many requests for samples for this wonderful cider from my electorate. There are also Lost Pippin Cider, Pagan Cider, Red Sails Cider, Spreyton Cider, the Two Metre Tall Cider and so many more in this industry in my electorate and around Tasmania, so it was great to see the cider industry at Taste of the Huon.

As I said, there were lots of berries, in ice-creams and with pancakes—a wonderful array of desserts and foods. Festival goers were able to have some lunch and sit down in the glorious weather. It was very sunny down at the Taste of the Huon. I think it was almost 30 degrees on the Sunday when I went with the bumper crowd and there were a whole range of stores from salmon to meat and wagyu beef—really beautiful local produce.

I would encourage anybody who is coming to Tasmania in March next year to come down to the great Huon Valley to sample some of this great produce, the great wine and the great food that is coming out of the Huon these days. It is a wonderful experience, and people cannot go wrong coming down to visit Taste of the Huon and to experience the festival that is held in March every year.