SOURCE: Chris Komorek, Fruitnet The Ord Irrigation Scheme, a plan designed to develop part of the nations’ tropical north for intensive irrigated agriculture by harnessing the waters of the Ord River, is set to bring Western Australia’s largest mango orchard back to life. The orchard, formerly known as Galango andContinue Reading
SOURCE: Helen Sullivan, The Guardian It was the summer of 2018 and Australians were sweating. In their hands: a single avocado pear, barely ripe. The price: $9. Could it possibly be worth it? And how many times had it been squeezed? Thankfully, though much has gone wrong in the worldContinue Reading
SOURCE: Queensland Country Life Australia’s pineapple industry will head to Bundaberg this July for the Golden Circle 2021 Pineapple Field Days. Delivered by Growcom on behalf of the Australian pineapple industry, the two-day event will include information sessions, practical field walks, gala dinner and a trade show. The event willContinue Reading
SOURCE: Kellie Hollingworth, ABC The number of avocados grown in Sunraysia and the Riverland next season is expected to double and may even be so high the harvest will fill 1 million trays. The forecast boost is due to favourable weather conditions and some young plantings coming into production. AvocadosContinue Reading
Australian banana growers who have lost up to 100 per cent of their crop to cyclonic winds are calling for urgent assistance from the Queensland and Federal Governments.Continue Reading
SOURCE: Australian Associated Press, The Guardian About 1,200 South Pacific fruit pickers are expected to arrive in South Australia to help fill critical shortages of seasonal agriculture workers. The SA government’s attempts to encourage unemployed locals to take up fruit picking jobs failed to attract enough workers. A regional Covid-19Continue Reading
SOURCE: David Winning, The Wall Street Journal To harvest red papaya in northern Australia’s tropical heat, farmer Paul Fagg has long drawn on an unusual labor pool of overseas tourists. Not this year. Australia crushed the coronavirus with one of the strictest border-control regimes in the world. But that successContinue Reading
SOURCE: Keely Johnson, ABC News A highly destructive fungal disease known for wiping out entire banana crops, is devastating plantations on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, putting local supply in jeopardy. The disease, Panama disease race 1, is threatening a banana supply shortage of the Lady Finger andContinue Reading
SOURCE: Tim Dornin, The Canberra Times Mangoes sent to South Australia from a Northern Territory supplier are being withdrawn from supermarket shelves and fumigated or destroyed after the discovery of Jarvis fruit fly maggots. All fruit sent from the particular grower to SA since October 5, including some still inContinue Reading
SOURCE: Courtney Fowler, ABC Mango growers in Kununurra are facing one of their most challenging mango harvests yet, off the back of a decade of dwindling yields out of Western Australia’s Ord Irrigation Scheme. At its peak, WA’s largest mango-growing region produced well in excess of half a million trays.Continue Reading
SOURCE: Aaron Bunch, The Canberra Times A second group of mango pickers is expected to touch down in the Northern Territory after flying from Vanuatu to help with the Top End harvest. Coronavirus health restrictions and closed borders stopped many seasonal workers travelling to the NT, leaving growers desperately shortContinue Reading
Guy Gaeta is normally surrounded by dozens of foreign backpackers, busily picking cherries and chatting away in several different languages. But this harvest his orchards remain worryingly quiet after the world’s toughest Covid-19 travel restrictions caused a shortage of workers.Continue Reading