Farmers Pick

Farmers Pick: fresh produce subscription with delivery across Australia's east coast

Farmers Pick is a subscription delivery service for fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy and pantry items operating in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The company was founded by Josh Ball and Josh Brooks-Duncan with the stated aim of making fresh food fairer. Its proposition is based on home delivery of customer-configured boxes, with weekly, fortnightly or monthly deliveries and no lock-in contract.

How the subscription works

The process begins by answering a few questions about your household and preferences, after which the company suggests a suitable box size. You can modify the contents, add extras such as meat, seafood, dairy or pantry items, and choose the delivery frequency. Your first box arrives as soon as five days after ordering. There are no one-off orders: every subscription includes at least one core box, either fruit and veg or meat, seafood and dairy. You can skip a delivery, change the box size, modify the frequency or cancel at any time with no cancellation fees, as long as you do so before the cut-off time set for each delivery.

Box contents and product range

The offering is organised into several categories: fruit and veg, meat, seafood, dairy, bread, pantry, snacks, organic, baby and pet products. Fruit and veg boxes contain seasonal produce selected weekly by the team, balancing variety, seasonality and practicality for the household. You can view the expected contents before receiving your box and exclude up to four items that don't suit you. Meat boxes include grass-fed, grass-finished beef and free-range chicken and pork from local farms, along with seafood from responsible fisheries. The company also sells a range of pantry products with selected ingredients and fewer additives.

Pricing and delivery conditions

According to published information, fruit and veg boxes start from AU$38.95 and meat boxes from AU$65. The company states that its fresh produce boxes are up to 30% cheaper than supermarket equivalents, with weekly price tracking. Delivery costs from $7.95 per box. Deliveries are made within a 6:00 to 19:00 time window, with SMS tracking, and specific days depend on your location. Customers can check coverage by entering their postcode.

Commitment to reducing food waste

Farmers Pick presents itself as an alternative that makes use of produce rejected by supermarkets for cosmetic reasons, such as shape, size or surface marks, but which meets Australian food safety standards. The company maintains that it does not rescue spoiled produce, only that discarded for its appearance. Among the figures it cites to contextualise its activity are 1.7 million tonnes of food wasted on Australian farms each year, 3.5 million Australian households struggling to put food on the table, nearly one in eight seafood products mislabelled in Australia, and that 80% of beef sold in supermarkets comes from feedlots. The company states it has saved more than 10 million kilograms of Australian produce, returned more than $30 million to farmers, donated 268,000 kilograms to OzHarvest and works with more than 105 Australian farms.

Recipes and supporting content

The website includes more than 165 recipes created around seasonal produce, with examples such as grilled sea bass with asparagus, carrot and zucchini fritters, hasselback pumpkin, sweet potato and peanut butter brownie, roasted cauliflower with pesto and tahini dressing, grilled zucchini and pear salad, orange rosemary chicken with rice, lemon baked oats and salad with carrot and ginger dressing. The company also maintains a blog and a help centre for subscribers.

Presence and coverage

Farmers Pick operates in four territories in eastern Australia: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT. The company says more than 180,000 Australians use the service. Its model is built around flexible subscription and home delivery, with the option to modify or cancel each delivery according to the household's needs.