Berry Exchange’s goal of 12 month availability of Australian blueberries will come one step closer to reality this season with the first harvest from the company’s Tasmanian operations.
The Sulphur Creek plantation, on the northwest coast of Tasmania, will pick its first significant quantities of blueberries starting in January next year, and running through to around March.
Farm manager Rory Dow told Produce Plus this morning that the first harvest would be a small one, but would show the company what to expect as volumes grow from the young plantation over the next few years.
“It’s quite exciting to finally get a crop off the farm. The first harvest is a hard one to judge, but it will just be a small harvest,” he explained. “The bees are going out today for the pollination.”
The Sulphur Creek farm has almost completed its last plantings, which will bring it up to 50ha of blueberries, and 16ha of covered raspberries, making it the second biggest berry farm in Australia after Berry Exchange’s operations in Corindi, in northern New South Wales.
“What we’re producing here is a huge increase for the `berry` area grown in Tasmania,” Dow told Produce Plus.
Berry Exchange’s Tasmanian production aims to fill a gap in its Australian blueberry supply. To fill that out to true year-round availability, Dow said the company is looking at ways to extend production in Tasmania further into April, as well as the possibilities of modified atmosphere storage.
The Tasmanian production will initially be focused on the Australian domestic market. While the island state has ideal phytosanitary conditions for export access, the Tasmanian blueberry season competes against both Chile and Berry Exchange’s own growing Moroccan production.
