One of Queensland's largest passionfruit breeders and growers is looking forward to the upgrade of its cold room to help maintain fruit quality during the warmer months.
Meiers Subtropical Plantation, based in Bundaberg grows 200 acres of Passionfruit, and Co-Owner Mary-anne Meiers admits construction has been delayed due to sheet walls coming from NSW, and problems getting them interstate, with the COVID lockdowns creating logistical issues.
"It is supposed to happen in August, but we're not sure that it will be done by then yet," she said. "The old cold room held six pallets, and the new one will hold 16, and higher. So, it will be great for keeping fruit in as the weather gets warmer."
The family-owned business has been in the passionfruit industry for 45 years; operating in Bundaberg for the last 27 years, before that in Nambour, on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. Paul and Mary-anne have their two sons Jason (31) and Bradley (27) working with them for 12 and 13 years respectively. In addition, there are about 10 locals working with them throughout the year, with backpackers swelling the number to over 35 in busy times.
"We currently have 92,000 vines which represent 276 km of trellised passionfruit, and we have a breeding program which we started before we moved to Bundaberg," Mrs Meiers said. "We have developed several outstanding varieties which are exclusively ours. We do everything 'in-house'; from seed propagating, grafting, breeding our own varieties, growing, picking and packing. We produce our own varieties, at the moment this year, we are running with about 20 varieties of hybrid passionfruit cultivars that are being grafted up for the next plant in spring and early summer. But four varieties are over 10 years old, so possibly getting to their end of viable life expectancy. They are still producing well, though. All have their time in the sun."
Production this year has been down on the last few years, which the Meiers puts down to drought. There is also expected to be challenges this year in getting pickers, with the usual backpackers not entering the country, while there will also be water issues as Paradise dam wall/carrying capacity was dropped significantly, so there is less water available.
Mrs Meiers says the agents at Sydney markets have experienced some difficulties with the lockdowns, there is still strong demand for quality fruit.
"We produce fruit almost all year round, except around January and February, which is a good time for a holiday, and gives us time to train those new vines up onto the trellising before it starts to get busy again," she said. "We supply Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne markets. COVID has impacted with the lockdowns and restaurants closed but hasn’t severely affected us. Our peak time is May through December. Last year was exceptionally busy for us, with quite a few weeks producing over 3500 to 4500 cartons of premium fruit per week. From May to December last year, we produced between 500,000 and 700,000 passionfruit per week, peak times being July–August, and October–December."
Meiers Subtropical Plantation does everything “on-farm”, which requires six hot houses and a shade house. Mrs Meiers says they graft their own varieties onto rootstock plants; from seed to tiny rootstock plants to staked up grafted "ready to plant" cultivars.
"We have three farms, 200 acres under passionfruit," she said. "We barely use any pesticides; we rely heavily on integrated pest management. The main sprays we use are all one-day withholding fungicide sprays. Very little chemical fertilizer is used on-farm, preferring to use more organically based fertilizers which are much kinder on the environment and the worms."
For more information and photos visit the Meiers Subtropical Plantation Instagram page.