North of Alice Springs, the grape harvest at Ti Tree Farm has been cut short because of heavy rain, and the operation left without around 30,000 boxes of produce.

Farmer Bevan Ball says the rain not only shortened the harvest, but also damaged the grapes.

Humid conditions last year also had impacted the quality of the grapes, but Mr Ball remains optimistic.

Mr Ball said the quality of the grapes that were able to be harvested this year wasn't "too bad". "It still ate very well; the size just didn't come up as good as it can," he said. "It still went through well and the supermarkets took it well."

Ordinarily the farm finishes harvest late in December but "the season was a little bit late this year".

"It means the prices drop because other growers are starting to harvest," said Mr Ball. "We try and beat Emerald in Queensland but that didn't pay off this year. You would like about $80 to $90 per 10 kilogram case but it wasn't anywhere near that this year."

Mr Ball says he has covered his costs, but probably wouldn't invest in any additional development this year.

"For the last three years we have put an additional 20 to 30 hectares in," he said."We will probably just sit back a bit this year and take a breath which will be nice.You have to be an eternal optimist being a farmer."

Source - http://www.freshplaza.com