A customer holds chia seeds from the Chia Co company, owned by Australian farmer John Foss, at a suburban...
A customer holds chia seeds from the Chia Co company, owned by Australian farmer John Foss, at a suburban supermarket in Sydney, Australia, July 7, 2015. While Australia's main agricultural products like wheat, rice, sugar and beef have traditionally fed Asia, there is now a wave of farmers moving to premium crops as Australia pushes to become Asia's delicatessen. After being fed up with being subjected to the market volatility that had long plagued his Australian family wheat farm, John Foss abandoned tradition and took a risk on a little known crop. His decision to ditch wheat in favour of chia seeds in 2003 left his family bemused. More than a decade on, Foss is the one smiling. Demand for chia is soaring and Foss, now overseeing the global expansion of his Chia Co business from a New York office, has little trouble selling the crop's prospects to other growers. Picture taken July 7, 2015. To match AUSTRALIA-AGRICULTURE/DELICATESSEN REUTERS/David Gray