AU: Business as usual for North Queensland banana growers
The tropical cyclone struck off the Central Queensland coast near Bowen, nearly a month ago, and the Australian Banana Growers Council says it has had very little impact on the supply of the fruit.
"It’s business as usual for North Queensland banana growers where more than 90% of Australian production is sourced," ABGC Chief Executive, Jim Pekin said.
The council says rather than the main storm cell, which produced winds of over 200 kilometres per hour when it hit the mainland, it was the flow-on effects as it travelled south that proved most damaging.
"North Queensland was spared from the impact of Cyclone Debbie," Mr Pekin said. "Growers with smaller acreages in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland had a range of impacts on them from that cyclone. The worst affected will take more than 12 months to recover."
While the main produce area is in Northern Queensland, mainly around Tully and Innisfail, Mr Pekin says that most of the storm damage occurred to the south of these crops and he does not expect there to be a flow on to consumers.
"The main production areas had no impact, so there was and is no price increase." Mr Pekin.
Bananas have a wholly domestic focus, with all produce grown and sold in Australia on the local markets.
For more information:
Jim Pekin
ABGC Chief Executive
Tel: +61 7 3278 4786
https://abgc.org.au/
Authour: Matt Russell