A mild winter across swathes of WA’s growing regions has left stone fruit growers with a mixed bag come harvest season.
A mild winter across swathes of WA’s growing regions has left stone fruit growers with a mixed bag come harvest season – with peaches bountiful but other crops down more than 90 per cent.
Stonefruit WA and Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis took to Yagan Square on Wednesday to spruik the arrival of the state’s stone fruits on supermarket shelves.
The sales pitch comes as the state’s largely family-owned orchard industry seeks to weather competition from imports from overseas and interstate.
Stonefruit WA vice chairman Michael Padula said peaches, nectarines, and plums would be plentiful this year, but cherries, apricots, and some plum varieties did not fare well over the growing season.
“Some apricot varieties and a couple of plum varieties just didn't flower,” he said.
“I have put it down to the warm winter and the lack of chill which does make a big difference with the fruit set.
“A lot of the other varieties are fine – peaches, nectarines, I've got more than enough there.”
The cherry harvest has been particularly hard hit this year, with some orchards expected to be down more than 90 per cent, due largely to weather.
Ms Jarvis said residents should look to other WA-grown stone fruits to fill the fruit bowl this festive season.
“Most stone fruit is grown in the peri-urban area – it is the shortest distance fruit you will get from tree to table here in Western Australia,” she said.
“If you can't find a cherry, if you want a bit of festive colour, you have got some… beautiful nectarines, you have got amazing plums.
“You can buy stone fruit in the supermarkets right now that isn't grown locally, but why would you do that.”
Mr Padula said the latest Queensland fruit fly threat detected in Willagee, competition with imported fruit, and lack of scale needed to access lucrative export markets were challenges the industry was grappling with at present.
“In WA it is good that we are smaller, family-owned farms,” he said.
“But at the same time, it can be a bit of a thorn in our side, because we don't have the sort of commercial capacity to go hard at export to China, for instance.”
