Drought, hailstorms and high winds are just some of the challenges Australia's stone fruit growers have had to battle this season. And if national consumer demand does not increase, many growers might have to sell their fresh produce without making a profit. Stone fruit grower Michael Trautwein grows the full range of stone fruit on their 80-hectare orchards in the Riverland, South Australia, and said high winds caused severe damage to apricots and wind rub on nectarines and peaches. Besides the high winds, cold nights and frosty weather during the flowering period also lead to fruit damage. "That showed up in some of the early varieties, where we have had more split stones and in particular shattered stones in the fruit causing rejections of this fruit," Mr Trautwein said. Chairman of Summerfruit Australia, Andrew Finlay, said it has been very challenging for farmers across all growing regions. There were been significant crop losses caused by vigorous weather in SA, New South Wales, Victoria and southern Queensland, where production volumes for the start of the season were down. Dried Tree Fruits Australia chairman and grower, Kris Werner, said the high winds caused some damage at his property stripping fruit off the trees and causing blemishes. In addition to extreme weather events farmers across all stone fruit growing regions have seen the impacts of very dry conditions. The need for more irrigation to produce fruit increased production costs, which Mr Werner said was getting more and more concerning. "We are all nervous because it hasn't rained," he said. "We were hoping to have water left to carry over because next year is going to be very challenging water wise."

Consumers urged to buy more

Despite difficult seasonal conditions to grow stone fruit, growers are concerned about the stagnant consumer demand on the domestic market. Mr Trautwein said Australian growers sold about 80 to 85 per cent of their product domestically. Mr Finlay said demand for stone fruit has been sitting relatively flat for the last few years. "Peaches and nectarine prices are down at around $3 per kilo and that will return to growers around $2.40 per kilo — it's really right down to cost of production," he said. "It's still early in the season … and there is very little margin for growers and the only way to improve that is to increase production. "It makes a huge difference to the amount of fruit that moves through the system and that helps farmers in a very direct way to get through this challenging time."

This year's fruit looks promising

Mr Trautwein said one major focus of Australia's stone fruit industry moving ahead is eating quality. "The single biggest challenge is eating quality of our product and the effect that has on consumer demand on the domestic market," he said. "The industry is working closely through it's industry levies with the supermarket chains to understand consumer preferences." Mr Finlay said getting good eating quality generally requires more inputs such as extra time to allow the fruit to get to its optimum stage. "But when the price that you are receiving becomes very close to cost of production, then it is really hard to justify that extra expense when you are not really being paid much extra for it," he said. This season, despite some smaller fruit size coming onto the market, eating quality appears to be good. "Because of the dry it is always more difficult to get good size but the upside of that, the fruit quality is usually very, very good," Mr Finlay said. Source - https://www.abc.net.au