Austchilli Group shares its success story after 25 years in chillies business

The Austchilli Group, one of the largest chilli producers in Australia, this November marks 25 years since their Founder, Owner and Managing director David DePaoli and his former partner Jim Line founded Austchilli.

David has spent over 50 years farming a variety of crops from cane to pepper and corn. However, he disliked the uncertainty of the ever-changing prices that fresh produce markets dictated. He believed that he needed to move from a farmer to an agribusiness providing growth, profit and sustainability.

In 1995, after research trip to the United States and Mexico, David and Jim saw an opportunity in the chillies world and returned to Australia with the idea of creating aseptic chilli purees. David and his team of five employees started growing chillies, and Austchilli's first product was a 22 kg box of Red Cayenne Chill Puree with their first customer all KFC in Malaysia and Singapore, which is still working with the chilli producer 25 years later.

However, money was tight and the banks did not think that chillies would become popular in Australia, so David started selling fresh chillies to fund the future development of his value-adding business. Today, Austchilli Group is one of the largest chilli producers in Australia, supplying all major supermarkets with a wide range of fresh chillies, 52 weeks a year.

David's out-of-the-box thinking has resulted in the Group that now offering over 100 products ranging from 30-gram tubs of Avocado smash, vegetable, fruit and herbal puree, and exporting them to 10 countries around the world.

Sustainability is a way of being for the company, and its agronomy team have great respect for the environment and believe that what you put back into the soil and how you treat it will reward you with high quality and healthy produce. The team use these "old-time" principles together with modern science and technology, to improve their growing practices and to deliver products with high nutritional value.

The Austchilli Group is a privately owned, vertically integrated farming agribusiness that supplies food and beverages to multinational companies around the world. With a unique approach to processing and doing business, their fresh chilli varieties and vegetable, herb and chilli puree products are now supplied and in demand in the Australian and global markets.

More about products and services of the Group’s on its website.