18 Oct 2017 Myrtleford Times, Myrtleford VIC (General News) by Justin Jenvey Community farm for use by local businesses AUSTRALIAN Pumpkin Seed Company owners Sharan and Jay Rivett are eyeing their latest venture a community farm that will allow people to plant and grow their own business. Mr Rivett said the Ovensbased business has for a number of years operated a social enterprise helping local hazelnut and walnut growers press their own oil. We love what we have been doing with the oil mill and thought this was another social enterprise opportunity we could create, he said. The basic idea is were going to set up a farm and hopefully partner with groups like unemployment agencies, TAFEs, universities or young people who might not have the money for their own farm, to get a start in the industry. They will use our farm as the starting point to put a product in the ground and we will work with them from then on to teach them how to run a business. We think it will be one of the first of its kind in entire area and were hoping a lot of different people get behind it and people show interest in the opportunity. The Rivetts plan to set up the farm on land directly opposite their business on the Great Alpine Road. Last Thursday Jaclyn Symes (MLC, Northern Victoria) visited the Australian Pumpkin Seed Company as part of being named one of the Victorian Faces of Small Business in August. Ms Symes said it was a significant honour for the couple to be chosen as one of nine faces, with Victoria having more than 556,000 small businesses, including around 17,000 in the Hume region. There are many small businesses that play a crucial role in our economy and generate almost half of all private sector jobs, she said. This truly is a magnificent story, proving we have some of the best small business success stories in North East Victoria. Businesses such as Australian Pumpkin Seed Company are crucial to our economy but also to their local communities because of the positive social impact they can have. One of the best things about the small business sector is the great success stories we hear from people, particularly country Victoria, who had a dream and worked hard to achieve it. Victorias small business sector continues to grow at a rate faster than any other Australian state and in 2016 grew by 2.8 per cent with more than 15,300 new small businesses created. Caption Text: FAST-GROWING: Jaclyn Symes (MLC, Northern Victoria) found out about the Australian Pumpkin Seed Companys plans from owner Sharan Rivett during a visit last week. Licensed by Copyright Agency. You may only copy or communicate this work with a licence.