Hey Natasha,
Thanks for the question! It's a good one. Long story short- we have no long term plans to continue manufacturing in Italy. At the time, this was the only option to support our WA regenerative oat farmers to create a product that was an avenue for sales. As a small company that had limited manufacturing resources, we always had a long term dream to have production here in WA. It was still very important to us that we could do everything we could to align the product to our ethos.
Our oat milk is a carbon neutral product certified by Climate Active. In fact, DCF Oat Milk is the only oat milk in the world that is both carbon neutral and made from regenerative oats - oats that are grown and rolled right here in WA! You can read about it in detail here: Climate Active - Public Disclosure Statement https://www.wideopenagriculture.com.au/sites/default/files/WOA%20-%20Climate%20Active%20PDS%20-%20Org%20and%20Precinct%20(Oct%202020)%202.2.pdf
You are right - we don’t want to be producing oat milk in Italy, and we won’t be for long. Currently there is no oat milk manufacturing in WA, and the environmental impact of producing our oat milk on the East Coast and then trucking to WA is actually worse than sea shipping.
To offset the carbon used in the transport, we have invested in carbon offset projects in WA and QLD. Additionally, we are Australia’s leading regenerative food and farming company – which is farming as nature intended. This includes diversity programs on farm, water and soil health programs, and of course – no nasties! We believe that the act of farming regeneratively captures carbon – a huge difference from commodity oats and oat powder widely used in the industry.
However we don’t want to be producing in Italy even if we are offsetting the carbon.
As disclosed publicly by our previous parent company, Wide Open Agriculture (WOA), WOA have recently raised funds to begin this project and will be reporting on the progress publicly soon. Dirty Clean Food is no longer a business under WOA, and the grant was allocated to WOA. We will still support the establishment of such facility by our previous parent company and of course, provide the sales channel for such a fantastic product.
So, enjoy our regenerative oat milk and help be a part of creating something special helping advance regenerative farming in WA.
