AU: Mold and low prices plague Australian strawberries
"The weather has really impacted us the last couple of years," said Andrew Kutija of AAK Strawberry Farmers in Queensland, Australia. AAK grows premium strawberries on 30 acres of land and sells them in punnets that range from 250 grams to 500 grams. Like many growers in the area, they have had to contend with weather limiting production.
In particular, rains have contributed to more and more cases of grey mold. Grey mold, which is caused by a fungus that rots strawberries, occurs most often when cool, wet conditions persist during harvest. Rains have spurred the growth of the mold, but Kutija noted, other factors have also come into play.
"We have been struggling with grey mold because chemicals we use to combat it are no longer working," he said. "We haven't had a new variety of pesticide for 10 years, so the fungus is now resistant to the chemicals we use."
The prevalence of grey mold has, in turn, translated into less volume. Kutija estimated they've harvested 60 percent of the fruit they had at this point last year. But even with those lower figures, he is optimistic the season will pick up.
"We're currently doing 8 tons of fruit a day," he said. "We are hoping that when the weather warms up we'll be up around the 16 ton a day mark." But a sore point regarding production, for Kutija, has been that market prices haven't reacted as they normally do to limited supplies. In years when the harvest has been light, prices have usually been strong. But this year, despite less volume, prices have remained around $1.40 for a 250 gram punnet.
"We have less fruit," said Kutija. "But we still have the same price as last year."
For more information:
Andrew Kutija
AAK
Tel: +61 (0)410 514 709
Fax: +61 (0) 7 5429 8693
[email protected]
www.aakqld.com.au