Brookfarm is Australia’s leading producer of award-winning, premium macadamia muesli, granola, porridge, bircher, muesli bars, nut mixes and macadamia oils and is one of Northern Rivers’ great food business success stories!
Brookfarm started when Pam and Martin Brook bought a rundown dairy farm in the Byron hinterland in 1989. Since then they have planted over 4,000 macadamia trees and regenerated an ancient rainforest, planting over 35,000 rainforest and eucalypt trees.
In November 2000 – after 18 months of testing, baking and tasting – Pam and Martin sold their first Macadamia Mueslis at the local Bangalow markets. Since then the business has gone from strength to strength, today employing more than 70 people across three facilities. Brookfarm distributes their products across Australia and exports to the Asia-Pacific, Europe, UK, the Middle East and the US.
Much of Brookfarm’s popularity can be attributed to it sticking to the values that started on the family farm.
“We only produce real food and we source all our ingredients from farmers who employ sustainable farming practices,” Pam says. “People need to love the taste of the food they eat, and it also has to fit in with their healthy lifestyle, and that’s what we aim for in the foods we make.”
Pam, the Chair of Northern Rivers Food, also attributes Brookfarm’s early success to making the most of networking opportunities in the Northern Rivers and to the support they’ve received from locals.
“You just learn so much from other people, you absorb knowledge, and in a regional community people are always happy to give you advice,” Pam says. “The support for us in the region is the base from which we’ve built the business.”
A generational family business, Brookfarm is now led by Pam and Martin’s eldest son Will, while younger son Eddie runs Cape Byron Distillery on site at the property.
Brookfarm are passionate about giving back and supporting their community, with partnerships with Big Scrub Landcare, Bunjum Aboriginal Corporation, Liberation Larder, Rainforest Rescue, Sea Shepherd, BayFM, Northern Rivers Food and Byron Writers Festival.