About us
Willowvale Orchards is a family business owned by Brett and Margaret Hassett. We own two orchards in the South West Slopes region of NSW - one near the historic township of Adelong, and the other is located on the banks of the Tumut River, 7kms from Tumut.
Being a family business, we have a personal interest in providing quality produce for our customers. Brett is responsible for managing the orchard, and Margaret is responsible for managing the paperwork and investigating new avenues for possible marketing of our fruit.
Our children are also involved in our business - Anna, Monique, George and Jack help us as best they can in between their school and sporting commitments. We employ up to twenty people for picking our fruit throughout the picking season and have a reliable network of contractors who assist with pruning the trees and thinning fruit thus aiding in the maintenance of fruit quality.
At present almost all our fruit is sent to packing houses in the Batlow area and the packed produce is marketed in the central market systems of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with the supermarket chains being the major customers.
2007 saw us increase the number of farmers markets and fairs that we attend. This has proved an extremely valuable tool in assessing the requirements of our end customers (as told by them and not by the large supermarkets)! In the coming months we intend to expand more into this direct market with pre-ordering becoming available and delivery to a number of areas becoming more regular to the South West Slopes, Riverina, Port Stephens, Hunter, Newcastle and Canberra areas.