THE beef industry was strongly represented among the major category winners in the 2024 Australian Organic Industry Awards announced in Melbourne on Friday night.

Hosted by Australian Organic Ltd, the awards ceremony marked the conclusion of the two-day 2024 Australian Organic Conference. The event celebrated the successes of businesses and individuals and their outstanding contributions to Australia’s $2.6 billion organic industry.

Australia has more Certified Organic hectares than any other country on earth. Australia currently accounts for 35 million hectares of Certified Organic land, representing 54pc of the world’s total, and 8.8pc of Australia’s agricultural land (2018 data). Most of Australia’s Certified land area is used for beef and lamb production.

Peter Gall and Mick Hewitt from Hewitt Australia – winner of Business of the Year award.

Australia’s largest certified organic meat producer, Hewitt, was named Business of the Year, while its retail meat brand, Cleaver’s Organic, was crowned Brand of the Year.

Cleavers Organic produces a range of retail-ready beef, lamb and chicken plus value-added Organic products sold through national retailers like Coles and Woolworths, Harris Farm Markets, and independents across Australia.

“Thank you to the forebears of our company, who are also some of the early pioneers of certified organic meat in this country – most notably Peter Gall who’s here with me tonight,” Hewitt chief executive officer Mick Hewitt said.

Carly Burnham was another beef producer to win a major award, named this year’s Organic Farmer of the Year.

Carly Burnham, winner of Farmer of the Year at the 2024 Australian Organic Industry Awards.

Fifth generation producers near Monto, Queensland, Ms Burnham and husband Grant gained organic certification for their Bonnie Doone Beef enterprise in 2017, and last year gained the distinction of becoming the largest holder of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), following the implementation of a long-running soil carbon project run in conjunction with CarbonLink.

“This recognition enforces we’re on the right path in producing good-quality, healthy organic food,” Ms Burnham said.

“As many people in farming know, it’s often not just one person running the show, so I want to pay tribute to my husband back at home right now mustering cattle while I’m here accepting the award. It’s a real team effort so thank you to everyone at Boonie Doone.”