Apple harvest begins later than usual in Tasmania

The apple harvest has just begun, but like many agricultural sectors, picking has started later than usual.

Around 30,000 metric tonnes of apples are produced in Tasmania each year, accounting for about 10 per cent of Australia’s total volume.

Hansen Orchards is one of Tasmania’s biggest apple growers.

In a normal year, they would have picked their Gala variety by now.

But orchard owner Howard Hansen said they had only started picking the variety in the last full week of March.

Around 60 people will be picking apples for Hansen’s this season - with 60 per cent of the product heading interstate, while the rest stays in Tasmania.

Hansen Orchard apples can be found in Woolworths, Coles and Hill Street supermarkets.

Mr Hansen said he was confident about the future of the Tasmanian apple industry,

“Production nationally has been in a bit of a decline and the market is still the same size, so we would expect demand to increase over the next few years.”

The biggest barrier for Hansen Orchards was the Bass Strait.

“The cost of freight makes it challenging for us to be competitive,” Mr Hansen said.

“The government has a vision where they want to grow the value of agriculture to $10 billion by 2050.

“But for that to occur, there’s got to be the right environment for that to occur.

“We think that the government and TT-Line should be looking around at how they do the freight part of their business, and I think there is room for them to reduce their costs.”

Fruit Growers Tasmania CEO Peter Cronish said that mainland apple growers start picking earlier.

“They’ve been well underway for several months now, and that allows that fruit to get all through the system,” Mr Cornish said.

“Our Tasmanian fruit tends to go direct to market, but also it goes into storage for the second half of the year because our apples are of a nature and quality where they can do that.”

Mr Cornish said many apple growers now also produce cherries, with both fruit having different harvest seasons.

“Because cherries are so perishable, it’s a very short and sharp season, and everything goes to market.

“But apples can go into storage and are packed and graded progressively over the year.”

But with rising fuel costs, Mr Cornish said the petrol price crisis had come at a bad time for apple growers.

“A lot of apples are stored locally, but some are sent to big pack houses in Victoria, and that’s going to be more expensive.

“In the past, there hasn’t been the ability to pass on cost increases because there has been an oversupply.

“But the supply imbalance is not very significant this year, which means the retailers might be more understanding.”

While Tasmania does not export many apples overseas, Mr Cornish said places like Singapore could become key markets for the industry in the future.