AUSTRALIA Day should also be celebrated as national Garlic Day, according to the nation's biggest garlic producer.
Australian Garlic Producers director Nick Diamantopoulos said new-season garlic bulbs ideally hit supermarket shelves the week of Australia Day, providing growers with an ideal marketing opportunity.
Mr Diamantopoulos said AGP this season spent three months harvesting about 1000 tonnes of bulbs produced by two contracted growers in northwest Victoria and one in Tasmania.
After being forced to concentrate production in Tasmania last season because of drought and low water allocations, Mr Diamantopoulos said they had once again been able to grow garlic on the mainland, including 60ha south of Mildura.
"We found we were a bit better off this year with water than we have been in the past," he said. "We're also planting more densely now - by about 30 per cent."
Mr Diamantopoulos said the Victorian crop did not escape the ill-effects of heatwaves in November and last month, which hastened ripening and shortened the window for harvest.
Despite talk of a global shortage of garlic, prompted by a 40-fold increase in the price last year in China, Mr Diamantopoulos said there appeared to be no change to the price or availability of garlic in Australia.
The sudden demand in China, which is the world's largest producer of the plant, has been attributed to a popular belief that it can help ward off swine flu which has killed more than 300 people since November.
Mr Diamantopoulos said the company's future plans included improving yields by introducing new varieties.
They also were keen to delve further into mechanisation "to enable us to scale up and reduce overall production costs", he said.
AGP grows six commercial and several research varieties.
The garlic is cured, cleaned, packed and distributed from a processing plant at Red Cliffs, near Mildura, which will employ more than 100 people over the next six months.
As well as loose and prepacked bulbs, the company produces baby garlic and garlic paste.
Australians consume an estimated 10,000 tonnes of garlic each year, 95 per cent of it imported.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 8484 tonnes of garlic, valued at $6.93 million, were imported from China in 2008-09, up from 8375 tonnes ($6.46m) in 2007-08.
Small quantities also have been imported from Spain and Mexico.
