While Queensland growers lament the funding offered to deal with a deadly curcurbit virus, Northern Territory farmers also still struggle with the eradication of their crops over the last year following the discovery of Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus (CGMMV), affecting large fertile areas around Katherine, TiTree and Darwin. “As an organic farm with our own market we haven’t been able to pick up and start again somewhere else. The land certification is a two year minimum process,” says farmer John Etty, who had all his crops destroyed when the virus was discovered there after quarantine officers inspected it last year.
Mr Etty’s business, Wildfarm, did receive an interest rebate from the government, but he says that did not cover interest on loans already given to farmers by the government, only commercial loans. “We were forced to destroy everything, and the land is quarantined until testing next year,” he says. Tests are being developed, and expected to be carried out in 2016, according to Melons Australia. “Who knows what will happen next year, or even next month?” says Mr Etty. For now, Mr Etty grows other crops including capsicums, chilli tomatoes and onions.
One conventional farm closer to Darwin has decided to hedge its bets on being able to grow curcurbits again next year. “We’ve leased new land and planted on a smaller area. Last year we leased around 60 hectares and we wanted to rotate melons,” says Kerstin Stoldt, of Stoldt Farm, a farm which last year was able to produce 350 thousand boxes of melons.
The farm will this year do less than half that, and only produce honeydew and rockmelons with no watermelons or pumpkins growing. “There’s a window of about six weeks when you can get good prices during the shoulder season, for honeydew and rockmelons, and this year we’re planting a little later to try and stretch that out to the last week of October,” adds Ms Stoldt.
Conventional grower ‘one of the lucky ones’
Ms Stoldt says that her business is one of the fortunate ones, because hedging bets on being able to grow again, and getting a smaller farm up and running for this current melon season, which only lasts three months, was a costly exercise. “Most other growers don’t have that option because they don’t have what could amount to half a million dollars to spare,” she adds. Melons and pumpkins are also the only crops besides bananas and mangoes that can grow in serious commercial quantities in the Northern Territory, according to her.
The new farm also means that produce has to be trucked 20km away to the packing shed. “It’s still a risk too, because even on our new lease every block has to be tested to see if the virus is still active once it’s been planted. We’ve had to plan and allocate for that.”
The Stoldt business, Sweet Life, has a strong existing relationship with major retailers, which it was important to keep alive, according to Ms Stoldt. “We needed to keep a foot in the door to ensure we’d be ready to supply again when the time comes. So far the supermarkets have been supportive, and one big chain that we used to supply locally switched from a WA supplier to our NT Rockmelon & Honey Dew once we started harvest.”