Berry grower Smart Berries is looking forward to increased volume, high quality off-peak season this winter, with some early fruit already being harvested. “Our season has just started. We’re optimistic about this season,” notes Smart Berries CEO Anthony Poiner. “The weather this last summer was much kinder than the previous year. During the summer of 2013/2014 we experienced the driest summer we’d had in 40 years.” Mundubbera, Toowoomba and Bundaberg, all regions where Smart Berries has plantings, have had good water, kinder weather, and have managed to dodge the brunt of Cyclone Marcia, which ripped through Central Queensland in February.
“Across the industry, we’ve got significantly increased plantings and production volumes of blueberries in particular coming onto the market in coming years. There are significant new plantings in Queensland, expansion plans from the growers in the North Coast of New South Wales and expansion occurring in Western Australia as well. They are the areas I expect will see increased production,” says Dr Poiner.
The fruit size for blueberries is looking similar to last year, according to Dr Poiner, with blueberries of 25 mm being harvested that are described as ‘very high quality’ by him. “Our varieties are performing true to type and are looking excellent,” he adds. In terms of market price for blueberries, Dr Poiner says he expects it to remain similar to last year. “We still have remnants of supply from New Zealand but we presume that will tail off.”
Smart Berries aims to target the winter production period, where there is traditionally a low period of supply in Australia, and will also be exporting again to a range of countries, particularly within Asia, as spring comes on. “It’s not our intention to flood the market. When peak production period occurs in Australia that also happens to match a gap in terms of global supply,” says Dr Poiner.
Smart Berries will also produce raspberries and blackberries from 2015 onwards.
For more information
Anthony Poiner, CEO
Smart Berries
+61297048300
E-mail: Anthony@smartberries.com.au
Website: www.smartberries.com.au