Yarra Valley Cherries earns Climate Active carbon neutral mark

Yarra Valley Cherries has been certfied as a carbon neutral cherry orchard through the federal government's Climate Active initiative.

Climate Active aims to measure, reduce and offset carbon emissions through the government's partnership with Australian businesses.

Yarra Valley Cherries managing director Andrew Fairley said they had made "every effort possible" in the past 10 years to minimise their carbon footprint.

Mr Fairley is a generational farmer with his family hailing from Shepparton, and have been part of the fruit industry since the late 1800s.

They also manage a small number of cattle.

"We have reduced our carbon emissions as much as possible, and invested in projects that reduce or remove emissions from the atmosphere," he said.

"In terms of our values set, I've been involved in the eco-tourism sector for nearly 30 years and I've had a great commitment to ensuring that what we do in the tourism sector is sustainable.

"When I bought the farm 10 years ago it occurred to me that there were things we were doing on the property before that we could be doing better."

Mr Fairley said they had incorporated several carbon-efficient methods including installing 15-kilowatt solar array, electric forklifts and vehicles, natural fertilisers, chipping prunings and finding alternative uses for damaged fruit.

"The reality is the people that buy our product, which includes supermarkets, they are all going to be under pressure to become carbon neutral," he said.

"They already have a carbon budget, and even if it's not this year, at a certain point they're going to say to producers 'what is your carbon footprint?'

"It has to be an advantage to those big suppliers to say 'actually, you don't need to put any of our product on your budget because we're carbon neutral'."

He said his message to fellow producers was that their goals worked for them, and they were on the journey to do "whatever they could".

He said they hoped to optimise their opportunities while minimising their carbon impact.

"It makes economic sense, but it makes us feel like we're actually making a contribution," he said.