CANBERRA: South Australia’s largest cherry orchard has produced its biggest ever crop this year. Torrens Valley Orchards at Gumeracha in the Adelaide Hills, harvested 1,500 tonnes of the fruit, following a dire season in 2013-14 which produced just 100 tonnes.
The company produces 45 per cent of the state’s cherries and is one of the big 10 growers in Australia.Owner Tony Hannaford said despite an exceptionally dry growing season, the fruit delivered.”Cherries don’t like too much rain but we do need some rain and this year during the growing season there was virtually none at all,” he said.”The quality was good, no doubt about it, some of the best fruit we’ve had, but the size was a little bit too small.
“This past season has been our biggest crop ever, but we are increasing production each year, so the coming year I’d expect to have at least that volume again.”According to the latest cherry export-import summary, Australian cherry exports were 30 per cent higher for the eight months to February 2015, compared to the same time last year.
South Australia recorded an increase of more than 6,000 per cent on last year, producing 245 tonnes, up from four tonnes in the previous harvest.
Much of that was attributed to a terrible 2013-14 season across the state, but also that some of the fruit was exported through Melbourne.
This past season has been our biggest crop ever, but we are increasing production each year, so the coming year I’d expect to have at least that volume again.Torrens Valley Orchards owner Tony HannafordMr Hannaford said export markets were key to his business, but there was potential for greater reach.
“There’s substantial interest in export but a lot of the markets are closed to us so we’re going into the very competitive markets of Singapore and Hong Kong which take up the lion’s share of the mainland production,” he said.”It’s only Tasmania that has area freedom status, that has access into China and Taiwan, which were some of our best markets before.”
Those markets are closed to the mainland states because those countries have concerns about pests like fruit fly.It is something the industry is working hard to change according to Cherry Growers Australia Chief Executive Officer Simon Boughey.
