AUSTRALIA'S blueberry industry is going gangbusters, with NSW leading the charge.
Worth about $45 million to $50 million, the burgeoning industry is expected to grow at a rate of about 10 per cent a year for the next three to five years - after more than doubling its production between 2002 and 2007.
Industry and Investment NSW district horticulturalist for tropical fruit at Alstonville, Phillip Wilk, said it was an industry going from "strength to strength".
NSW is the largest producer with 85 per cent of the Australian crop, with Tasmania and Victoria showing strong growth, while small amounts were produced in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia.
Within NSW, more than half the blueberries were produced from Coffs Harbour to the Qld border.
Total production across Australia was 2500 tonnes in 2008-09 from 500 hectares of crop, with 60 per cent produced for the domestic fresh fruit market, 25pc for the export market and a further 15pc for the processed market.
But the aim for the industry was to produce fruit throughout the year, Mr Wilk said, instead of the ten months it is currently produced.
Picking and packaging were also another challenge, being the biggest cost to producers at about 60 per cent of production expenses.
However the United States was looking at methods to change this, with machinery to harvest the fruit for the processed market.
"The future of the industry hinges on researching varieties and machine picking," Mr Wilk said.
He said if these machines could be utilised for the fresh pick market, then production costs could be slashed.
At the moment growers needed about 10 hectares under production before they could cover the picking and packaging costs.
He said a tray of blueberries (which consisted of 12, 125g punnets) sold for $60 early in the season, and at a break-even price of $25 for late season berries.
While Mr Wilk said Australia was a small player in world production, product was exported to the Asian market including Japan, Hong Kong, and South East Asia.
But the export market in general, which included a small percentage of fruit to Europe, had dropped off with the high Australian dollar.
A growing blueberry market in Chile was being watched closely by local growers, as Australia has a free trade agreement with the country and it produces at the same time of year, promoting speculation they could flood the market with cheaper product.
New Zealand also exported to Australia if a shortfall occurred in the local market, which generally happened about October.
Mr Wilk said the Northern Riverina growers have a good single desk marketing system which regulated the output and ensured the market was never flooded, and so ensured good returns.
Any surplus imports threatened their system.
* For a profile of a blueberry farmer, as well as information on poultry, bees, orchards, fighting aquatic weeds and more see the February-March edition of Farming Small Areas, free with The Land, February 18.
Email a friend