Protected Cropping Australia tours the Apple Isle

Dinner at the award-winning winery, Josef Chromy Wines at Relbia near Launceston, was a big drawcard.

Fresh berries are undergoing a production boom in Tasmania with a seven-fold increase in berry production during the past five years.

Tasmanian Berries is a family-owned farm that produces berries for Driscoll's Australia.

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The berries are produced undercover on sites at Exton and nearby Elizabeth Town. Harvesting runs from November to late May.

The Exton site has recently undergone a $3.4 million expansion and now has 33 hectare of covered growing space.

Further inland is Burlington Berries, a large independent berry producer at Cressy.

Once known as a major wheat growing area, Cressy has diversified with potatoes, poppies, vegetables and berries.

Burlington's 35ha farm produces soft fruit in long polytunnels and grows mainly for Driscoll's. Harvesting runs for seven months from late spring.

Burlington Farms' soft fruit manager, Robert Bain, said one of the limiting factors for the business expansion is accommodation for pickers.

"Having at least seven months of picking allows us to invest money in training," he said.

"We really need more low-cost accommodation for backpackers and seasonal workers in the region as the guys are really struggling to find accommodation and we are getting less workers because of it."

DEALING with the tyranny of distance is the main challenge for producers in Tasmania particularly when fresh produce has to reach mainland market.

For analytical lab Agvita Analytical, however, the path goes the other way - as it deals with plant, water and soil samples from growers Australia-wide coming to Tasmania.

Despite the business's location near Devonport, general manager, Michael Ruffels, said it can offer next day results to growers in most parts of Australia.

While all types of plants are analysed at the lab, which employs 12 to 13 trained staff, the top four are potato, grape (both wine and table), strawberry and watermelon.

Mr Ruffels said the most important factor for growers sending samples to the lab is to get the correct sampling material whether it is plant, soil or water and to send an adequate amount.

VISITORS from Queensland, northern NSW and Western Australia may find Tasmania's late-summer weather a little chilly despite the warm sunshine.

However, flower grower Maartin Blokker from Blokker Freesia at Wesley Vale near Devonport, said the area had the ideal climate for growing freesias with an annual temperature range from around 0C up to no more than 26C due to the areas proximity to the coast.

"It is probably one of the best places on earth to grow freesias," Mr Blooker said.

On the topic of location, he said the only other contender for the title would be parts of California.

Mr Blokker and wife Marianne established the business around 20 years ago. As well as freesias, the Blokkers also grow Dutch iris and calla lily (zantedeschia) in large glasshouses with some outdoor growing.

Almost all the flowers are sent to the mainland wholesalers. The business also grows freesia bulbs for export to Europe.

While the climate of Tasmanian's north may be spot on for freesias, tomatoes only have a fairly short growing season in Tasmania.

Just west of Devonport at Turners Beach, is one of Tasmania's largest tomato producers, J & A Brandsema.

The family-owned company produces glasshouse-grown tomatoes for Coles, Woolworths and independent retailers throughout Tasmania.

While the company's focus is on its local market, excess cherry and other tomatoes are exported to the mainland.

"With so many Tasmanian home gardeners harvesting their own tomatoes in late summer we usually see a drop in local demand at this time of the year, but mainland consumers are happy to snap up the Tassie-grown produce," Marcus Brandsema said.

As well as tomatoes, Mr Brandsema also produces capsicum, chilli and eggplant.

Eggplant production however was halted during 2018 when fruit fly was discovered in nearby Spreyton.

The Turners Beach area fell into the exclusion zone, which meant that special restrictions were enforced at the farm before crops could be moved off site.

These included fumigation and cold treatment, which is unsuitable for eggplant. With northern Tasmania having regained its fruit fly free status, Mr Brandsema told the group that he was planning to bring eggplant back into the growing mix.

WHILE freesias and tomatoes seem a world apart, both growers rely on a local waste product to make their production cost efficient: hardwood sawdust.

At both the Blokker and Brandsema farms, large covered trucks deliver regular loads of sawdust, which is used to power furnaces that in turn assist production.