THE picking of Queensland stonefruit is in full swing in southern Queensland with indications prices will remain firm as growers get their fruit onto the market.
Kumbia grower Graham Francis and his sons Shane and Lindsay of Easy 8 Orchard, started picking on September 25 and will have the crop finished by the end of October.
Family spokesperson, Shane Francis, said it was a quick, sharp picking and packing season for them, and so far the price had been good.
He said when the season started a few weeks ago they were receiving $80/tray for their peaches, which were going into the top end of the market.
"Prices from the supermarket giants are now $30/tray from Woolworths while Coles are paying $34/tray," he said.
The Francis grow peaches and nectarines and have sourced enough staff to pick and pack.
"We have 20 in the paddock picking and 12 in the packing shed without using backpackers," he said
It is a much better situation to be in than last season when they left $40,000 worth of crop on the trees because they could not get staff to pick before it ripened on the tree.
In October 2018, the Francis family felt the full brunt of a super storm cell hail storm in the Kumbia district, and lost 90 per cent of their early maturing stonefruit crop. As a result, of their 22,000 trees, they could only save 11,000.
Mr Francis said they didn't replant due to labour shortages as backpackers became scarce during COVID lockdowns, and since then they have relied on locals and those Australians who follow the season and keep returning.
The Francis estimate they will finish the season having picked 150 pallets of fruit.
Andrew Finlay, Pike's Creek Orchard, west of Stanthorpe said the season got underway very early for their region.
He said the Pike's Creek packing shed was in full swing and their first season variety Show Angel peaches had been picked.
"We are about 10 days earlier into the season due to the warmer weather,." he said.
Mr Finlay said that from August the days were much warmer and the daytime maximum was consistent bringing the fruit on earlier that the usually colder weather expected.
He said they were now onto their plum varieties and the nectarines would come online from the middle of November.
"After that we switch back to more plums to take us through to Christmas," he said
To streamline labour, Pike Creek joins forces with their neighbours Pratt's Traprock Orchard, and the Ferrier's Rosemary Hill Orchard.
"We all work closely and pool a labour resources which is a mixture of Australians who return each year for the packing season and backpackers," he said.
He said it was too early to gauge prices but they had been quoted reasonable values.
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Helen Walker
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
