Vine magazine May 2023

for the picking season?

Dual weight ranging compact scale

Robust and reliable, the light-weight Japanese designed IPC series of compact scales can withstand rough conditions to produce accurate weight results, and runs on only two D-size batteries Dual range weighing improves weighing data, and has a large LCD screen for easy reading and a helpful battery ‘save’ function. The IPC comes in 3kg, 6kg, 15kg and 30kg weighing models, with a water proof model also available.

Trade approved and certified

National Measurement Institute (NMI) approved for trade within Australia and C-Tick Compliant.

The Vine is a joint publication of the Australian table grape and dried fruits industries. For editorial and advertising enquiries, contact:

Dried Fruits Australia

T: (03) 5023 5174

E: enquiries@driedfruitsaustralia.org.au

W: www.driedfruitsaustralia.org.au

Australian Table Grape Association

P: 0438 316 339

E: tmilner@atga.net.au

W: www.australiangrapes.com.au

Editorial committee:

DFA Thomas Cheung, Megan Frankel-Vaughan

ATGA Jeff Scott, Terryn Milner

Design: Kylie Norton Design Printing: Sunnyland Press

Cover photo: Photography by David Sickerdick

© Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited 2023

This publication has been funded by Hort Innovation using the table grape and dried grape levies and funds from the Australian Government. Wherever you see a Hort Innovation logo, the initiative is part of the Table Grape, Dried Grape, Dried Tree Fruit or Prune Fund. Some projects also involve funding from additional sources.

Adapting to challenges as dust settles on season

While we wait for the dust to settle on the harvest season, with its many complexities and challenges, both dried grape and table grape industries are finding ways to optimise issues within their control.

Responding to a bottle neck at harvest time, the dried grape industry has invested in the development and manufacture of new harvesters, for the first time in 15 years.

Meanwhile in table grapes, a new project is supporting producers to trial new technologies that increase certainty in yield estimation and improve decision-making earlier in the season.

Soon, we’ll be able to evaluate the season and look ahead to the second half of this year.

– from the team

For further publication details, see page 39

Table Grapes Dried Grapes Combined Industries Prunes

Unlocking potential

PROJECT HELPS PRODUCERS GET TECH-WISE

Tristan Smith knows the value of data.

As the horticultural technologist for Fresh Produce Group (FPG), based at their Treviso Vineyards property in Red Cliffs, Victoria, Tristan understands how important it is for producers to accurately forecast harvest windows and estimate potential yield to make informed business decisions.

In a variable industry like table grape production, he’s also aware of the benefits agricultural technology – or agtech – can have on improving efficacy of data, cost-savings and task efficiency. However, the path to adopting agtech is one taken not without risk.

Ease of use, interoperability, high cost versus uncertain return on investment can all impact the trust producers have in agtech products.

Part of the role of the Australian Table Grape Association’s (ATGA) industry development team is to investigate relevant agtech avenues and uncover opportunities to improve on-farm efficiency, while reducing the risk to producers.

One of the ways the team is doing this is through an AgriFutures Australia progression project, which the ATGA was awarded as an extension of its 2022 Producer Technology Uptake Program grant. The progression project will allow participating producers like FPG further testing of an innovative AI technology which analyses yield at various stages of production – technology which could, in theory, transform the way Tristan and FPG currently do business.

Know what you grow

Bitwise Agronomy’s GreenView platform uses cutting-edge AI crop analysis technology that can

“help farmers know what they’re growing or going to grow”, according to Bitwise’s Fiona Turner.

Bitwise uses AI and computer vision, an image recognition AI product.

“Basically, the AI sees as viticulturalists and agronomists, looking at different phenological stages and can measure and size and count to add superhuman scale, speed and accuracy, and so doing that gives operational insight and tools to help forecast better,” Fiona said.

“The exciting part is understanding problems that the table grape industry has and seeing how we can help solve those problems.”

During the project, participating producers like Tristan will mount a simple GoPro to their buggy with a side-on view of their vines, using machine vision to capture images which are then uploaded and converted into data the producer can use to plan ahead.

Tristan’s role is to review all FPG’s growing practices at their Treviso Vineyards and Colignan Farms properties, including developing block plans and crop setups for table grapes, so being able to use this technology as part of the AgriFutures project is a huge advantage.

“We pay a lot of attention and put a lot of emphasis on determining exactly how many bunches per vine and suitable berries per bunch we have throughout the block,” Tristan said.

“We start at fruit set, when the first block has been completed with bunch trimming and fruit thinning, and follow through as quickly as we can behind the thinning and trimming teams. Really, we want to get all that done before 20 December, so we can start making informed decisions from that veraison period onwards.”

Data is vital and allows growers to act quickly – but it currently comes at a cost, and it is a time-consuming process. At the moment, three to four people manually count bunches per quarter and berries in a bunch across a proportion of FPG’s blocks, from final bunch trimming and bunch thinning onward.

Once that data is ingested, Tristan uses historical knowledge on berry weights to estimate yield, as well as make other choices on how to achieve the suitable bunch size and count they need to reach their optimum harvest date.

“It does take us quite some time, and we also don’t have very long to do it,” Tristan said. “There are 100-120 blocks here in production. If you do leave it too long, your window to be able to correct with the A-team – a team of experienced workers – is too short.”

“If we decide that a block has bunches that are too large, we’ll send an A-team back through to make some adjustments and tweaks to those bunches in there to obtain that premium bunch."

In addition to time-spent and labour costs, Treviso Vineyards’ undulating soils, with low and high areas and lack of uniformity through the blocks, also make it difficult for Tristan to achieve accurate data.

If the technology can produce extensive data quickly, it is likely to slash the work of four to just one, saving on labour and time, which will allow FPG to make business decisions quickly and responsively.

“I’d like to be able, this year, to commercially roll this out to understand,

having a larger data set, not only what the cost-savings are but the accuracy of the data,” Tristan said.

“This job may only take me a couple of weeks instead of the time period it used to take. We can literally be right behind the tailing crews with this which will then give us a greater response time if we need to make adjustments on those blocks.

“There will definitely be huge time-savings and cost-savings using the Bitwise technology on the side of a buggy.”

Getting comfortable with agtech

The progression project will give ATGA along with participating producers the opportunity to address some barriers to adoption of agtech like Bitwise.

ATGA industry development manager Jenny Treeby said delivering these opportunities was key for industry.

“Last season provided significant challenges for producers and did not represent a typical growing season to work with,” Jenny said. “Securing the use of the technology for another season will, hopefully, help alleviate challenges faced by producers in the first round – like lack of staff availability and difficulties uploading large files – and give us a better understanding of machine vision and its use in table grape vineyards.”

Regardless of capacity, trialling technology like Bitwise, through the Producer Technology Uptake Program, helps growers understand the suitability of products and overcome barriers for adoption.

AgriFutures Australia manager innovation Emma Harbison said AgriFutures was excited to open up new avenues for agtech uptake for the table grape participants and see what opportunities the technology offered.

“A key benefit of the program is the focus on grass-root producers being the drivers of project activities tailored to addressing their specific barriers to adoption,” Emma said.

“We have seen first-hand the impact the program is having on producers and the farming community through collaboration, capacity building activities, peer-to-peer learning, and physically trialling technology.

“We know farmers like to touch and feel technology before investing and that’s where projects like ATGA’s allow farmers to get comfortable with the tech and see how it will help them in their business before taking the leap. "

Adapt and adopt

As innovations in horticulture are embraced by industry, new technologies can enhance efficiency and reduce production costs –among many other benefits.

Tristan said the beauty and simplicity of the GoPro and Bitwise technology meant it could be adapted to suit small and large growers.

“There are multiple outcomes that you can achieve from this,” Tristan said. “The main outcome that we’re looking for is balanced vines with suitable bunch size. Outside of that, we’re able to also inform our marketing team of the yield we’re looking at per block and with historical knowledge of what week that is likely to come through there.

“For any farm, to be able to estimate the yield they have out there with considerable accuracy will help through to purchasing packaging, talking to their marketer, whether they use a third-party marketer or themselves, and sorting out labour rather effectively.

“I do see benefits for all sizes of business in the industry.” v

A new dawn. A new standard.

New Miravis ® Prime combines the strengths of proven fl udioxonil (Group 12) and new pydifl umetofen (Group 7) to manage hard-to-control diseases.

These complementary active ingredients attack fungal pathogens in different areas of the plant. They target four different stages of disease development to effectively break the disease life cycle, while aiding resistance management.

There’s a new dawn in protectant fungicide technology, powered by MIRAVIS. Miravis Prime. For further information talk to your local Syngenta representative or visit syngenta.com.au/miravis-prime.

Project yields investment

NEW HARVESTERS SHAKE UP INDUSTRY

What does the dried grape industry do when faced with a challenge? Rises to it.

Season 2022 was no-doubt a difficult one. Wet conditions meant limited windows to remove fruit, leaving many growers producing poorer quality fruit that cost more to dry and offered lower returns.

At the heart of the issue – with one of the industry’s key harvest contractors taking a step back – was a lack of available harvest machinery.

The industry and its growers wasted no time in coming up with a solution to this bottleneck.

Innovation Committee’s first task

Chaired by Ashley Johnstone, the Dried Fruits Australia Innovation Committee – then an informal group of growers chatting about the needs of the industry – met after last year’s harvest.

“We wanted to look at a few mechanical ideas, improvements, not anything extravagant – just a few little gadgets to get the ball rolling. That was the initial intention of the group,” Ashley said.

“After the 2022 season, it was clear there simply wasn’t enough harvesting equipment to pick swingarm trellis.” There was discussion around resurrecting and upgrading old machines, but Ashley said his view was that the industry needed new equipment for safety, and to maximise efficiency and productivity.

“We had to look at what was the best dried fruit harvester around, and around the year 2000, about eight radial head Shaw harvesters were built. They were built by Mildura Irrigation Repairs Mick Stanbrook using Ivan Shaw’s design,” he said.

“In about 2009 – Tim – my brother built the harvester that I have now, which is a copy of those harvesters, with

a few modifications. That harvester of mine was the one to be copied going forward (with this project).”

With funds from the Dried Grape Trust, the Innovation Committee employed a draftsman to get the ball rolling.

Ashley said fellow grower and Innovation Committee member Rod Trigg played a pivotal role in seeking out the draftsman, and also putting the team in contact with Mildura-based manufacturer Interlink Sprayers.

From design to reality

Two growers, Rob Kennedy and Ash Chabrel, were the first to make a commitment to order a machine and Interlink got to work.

“You need to have the best equipment and that equipment needs to be working hard to pay for itself. If you’ve got old and unreliable equipment, then don’t expect good performance,” Ashley said.

“These are the solutions that we needed

for our industry, rather than patching up old dinosaurs. “They’re ancient and they’re not the future of the industry – the future is new equipment.

Interlink Sprayers managing director and head of design Matt McWilliams said the first two machines were built as a research and development project for Interlink – with little profit margin – to get some runs on the board.

“We made it more automated and easier to adjust speeds – that can all be done from the cab,” he said.

“We’ve gone to an LED screen that shows the harvester operating and shows (the driver) which part of the harvester they’re adjusting.

“It’s similar to a new car, I suppose – there’s some really flash technology on it.”

Manufactured in the heart of the growing region

For the Innovation Committee, with

Mildura the centre of Australia’s dried grape production region, to have the equipment made locally made sense.

Matt worked closely with growers and said it was important to develop the machine for the specialised task of harvesting dried grapes on the Shaw swingarm trellis.

“It’s one of those things that anyone out of the industry probably doesn’t appreciate – it really is quite specialised,” he said.

“It was a massive feat.”

All of the manufacture was done in-house, from engineering to spray painting.

While the first two harvesters are already hard at work, Matt anticipates another eight will be in the field by harvest next year.

“I’m grateful we took it on,” he said.

“It’s one of the few machines where we start it up in the factory and we’ve

got 20 people standing around and watching this thing go, mighty proud of themselves, saying ‘we did it’.”

Control back in growers’ hands

Rob Kennedy’s new harvester was delivered just before harvest began and has already been put to the test on 30 acres of Sunmuscats, currants and Sunglo.

While he said he was fortunate to have harvested all his fruit last season, this year – without a contractor to do the job – he was left few options other than to buy his own machine.

“There was no one to contract pick, so that left us wondering what we were going to do and the solution was to buy our own machine,” he said.

Investing in the new harvester put some of the control back in his hands.

“With rain coming, without access to a machine, you’d be in a line (for a contract harvester) and you might not get your fruit off,” he said.

“Generally the contractor was pretty good, they’d try to get to you if they could, but as soon as there’s rain coming everyone wants him.

“That’s the best thing about it. We can pick when we need to pick, and not wait until a machine is available.”

Strengthening the industry

Ashley said the investment growers were making in their own businesses

would help the wider industry persist.

“We needed more of these machines floating around the industry if it’s going to persist,” he said.

“If you don’t have harvesting capacity for this trellis system, then growers will either get out of dried fruit all together or they might alter their trellising system so that more narrow harvesters can harvest their crop, and then you lose all the other advantages of swingarm.”

Ashley said the Shaw swingarm trellis was industry best practice, and was one that allowed the production system to be continually refined and mechanised.

“We don’t want to lose that because we don’t have enough harvesters for that system,” he said.

It was a sentiment shared by Dried Fruits Australia’s field officer Stephen Kelly.

“These harvesters have been ordered by not only smaller growers who have a long history in the industry, but also by newer corporate producers,” he said.

“This means, particularly in tough seasons like last season, fruit can be taken off at the optimal time. This will mean higher grades of fruit will be delivered, increasing grower returns.”

DFA CEO Thomas Cheung said small but extremely successful projects led by the Innovation Committee show the decision to wind up old branches and streamline resources into industry initiatives was a wise move.

“There will be more projects to come from the committee, so stay tuned," he said.

Next step for Innovation Committee

Once the dust settles on season 2023, Ashley said the Innovation Committee would meet again to decide on its next priority.

The next stage of mechanised winter pruning, new varieties and sustainability are among the issues the committee is keen to focus on.

“There are so many other things in the pipeline that this committee’s looking at,” he said.

“We’re really trying to absolutely nail the production system and get it to be super efficient, and having good quality equipment is critical to having an efficient production system.”v Growers who want access to the drawings for the dried grape harvester can contact the Dried Fruits Australia office by emailing Stephen at projects@driedfruitsaustralia.org.au

High price for catching prices

From the chair: I'm more than halfway through harvest, but by the time this edition prints, I hope the season has almost wrapped.

Markets, as Jeff will discuss, would have benefited from an earlier season finish, and there have been some market issues regarding immature fruit. Since earlier in the year, productionwise, I think we have come through a lot better than we expected, and for that I’m grateful. One thing I did learn was that reaching out has armed me to deal with challenges in different ways, and that has been a good lesson learnt.

At the end of the day, this season has been eye-opening, and that’s not just for me but for many growers. There are market issues that we will need to address in time, as Jeff mentions, and the maturity situation will not end well if we’re all working against each other.

I know it was a challenging season and I’ve felt the brunt of that too, but we need to work together to ensure that we all get the best returns for the hard work we put in daily.

News from the CEO: Sunraysia's export season 3-4 week delay created many challenges.

A lot of fruit has landed in markets at

the same time – from Australia, but also competitors like Peru and Chile. Australia’s reputation of being a supplier of mature, fresh and safe fruit has been the promotional difference between Australia and southern hemisphere competitors for years now, and why importers have previously paid a higher price for our fruit. In the past, a glance at the Guangzhou market report would show that Australian fruit was receiving a higher price and moving quickly – unfortunately this isn’t the case this year. Separately, but related, several concerned growers have approached the ATGA because they’re hearing that a lot of Australian fruit arriving in overseas countries is not to the expected maturity standard.

They ask: “How can a grower/my neighbor be picking fruit when I’m still two weeks away from reaching the optimum maturity standard? I’m waiting to pick my fruit until I know it’s at its best, but I’m frustrated that a grower who picks early is harming the Australian reputation built up over the past many years.”

The ATGA embarked on its table grape maturity program six years ago, working with retail chains and suppliers to the supermarkets to address issues like this domestically. We implemented a minimum maturity standard (MMS) in 2019, and achieved more than 80 per cent consumer acceptability in 2020, followed by a close result in 2021.

Major retailers accept the MMS and will reject consignments that don’t meet specifications. They might not be legislated, as the standards are in Western Australia, but they are adhered to.

Maturity monitoring takes place on a weekly basis, from the retail chains’ distribution centres to random on-shelf sampling in supermarkets – and these results are conveyed to all parties. This process doesn't exist for export. This concern about sending immature fruit to market must be addressed. We need a strategy on how to capture maturity levels of export fruit and report results back to growers and exporters.

For example, the ATGA has investigated sampling all arrivals of fruit into China for maturity and presentation – given it is the largest market, receiving 45 per cent of exported fruit – and these results would be published in additional columns in the China market reports and distributed to everyone. These results could then be analysed, looking at maturity and presentation compared with price received and movement. If poor quality, low maturity fruit is recorded with a low and slow movement, it paints a picture.

Sadly, though, immature fruit landing in the market is harming Australia’s reputation and influencing the outturns of growers who have waited to get optimal maturity before exporting. Short term gains will lead to long term pains for everyone. v

Jeremey Boyd | Chair

Jeff Scott | CEO

Data gathering grows insights

As producers have retreated to harvest their fruit, coordinate logistics, and adhere to export and marketing requirements, the team has been active behind the scenes on trials, technology and industry representation.

The team harvested fruit from the dormancy breaker demonstration trial site in February. This demonstration trial has compared the efficacy of several alternative treatment options to those currently used.

The harvest and assessment phase was quite lengthy, as it involved recording bunch weights, colour uniformity assessment, berry weight and brix measurements. We’re thankful to Agriculture Victoria for providing their laboratory facilities for this purpose.

The abundance of data collected will be statistically analysed over the coming months.

The team also collected the final samples for the mealybug trial, which we conducted to establish if a selection of favoured chemistry applications would result in reduced mealybug populations in the following season. We conducted leaf assessments to establish the presence and/ or number of mealybugs in each treatment and replicate. This data will be analysed during autumn.

We’re thankful to the producers who hosted trial sites over the past growing season.

In the hunt for new technologies which make life easier and efficient for table grape producers, the team has been working to source funds for another year of yield estimation and harvest

management technology, detailed in the cover story on pages 4-6. Participating producers will use machine vision to record budburst, flowering and bunch counts in vineyards.

The team, with the help of Agriculture Victoria, has also been investigating the use of a non-destructive maturity measurement device from Rubens Technology. The device is currently used in stone and pome fruit industries to measure brix, acidity, colour and firmness. We’re hopeful the device can be adapted to suit table grape applications in the future – watch this space.

The team has an ongoing commitment to biosecurity representation for the table grape industry.

As part of our involvement in the viticulture biosecurity reference panel, the team spent time determining high priority pests for the industry to focus on.

We are also on a national viticulture committee that aims to establish a germplasm collection and streamline nursery standards.

Additionally, the team was able to sit in with the WA grower representatives to learn valuable lessons from the recent Western Australian Queensland fruit fly outbreak response coordination.

Aside from biosecurity representation, labour is a priority area for the team and we attended the recent Labour Hire Authority events in Mildura and Robinvale to understand more about the legislation. This feeds into an ongoing seasonal worker network facilitated by the Australian Table Grape Association with support from other Sunraysia-based industries, employment networks, Mildura Regional Development and state and federal government representatives.

Excitingly, we also had a team member represent the Australian table grape industry at FOODEX in Japan to highlight and promote new Australian table grape varieties. Read more about trade promotion on 24-26 .v Alison, Jenny & Karen

Looking to industry growth

A note from our chair

At the time of writing, about 15 per cent of the 2023 dried fruit has been delivered to packers, compared to 35 to 40 per cent in previous years. Those who had everything cut by the second week in March made the right decision. The data from DFA over the years shows waiting for sugar to rise for extra weight is not the way to go. The extra dollars received are lost on dehydration, processing charges and lower grades. Waiting also increases the possibility of not being able to harvest some of your crop.

Growers should work towards having a range of varieties that mature at different times. This means an earlier start to harvest and labour is easier to find and keep.

There are many new varieties that come in early and give high tonnages. Speak to your processors and nurseries on options.

For those who lost their crop and didn't harvest, like us, due to the floods and downy mildew, let me tell you our plan going forward.

We are not going to cut off canes put down last year, which means there will be no pulling out or rolling on. The only pulling down and rolling on will be of canes that will fill any areas where there

are no canes, especially in young vines. We plan to then run the cutter bar just under the bottom wire and just above the cordon, and as close as we can to the high wire on the high side of the Shaw trellis. Then we will go through and tidy up by pruning the cordon to encourage cane growth for next year's crop.

I’ve spoken to growers who have been in the industry for many years and no one, to date, thinks this is a bad idea. We will save dollars, and we expect the yield to be the same if not higher than average.

The cons will be that it won’t look very neat, we could have more crown bunches, possibly have more downy mildew spurs, and canes will be two years old after harvest in 2024.

I believe the pros outweigh the cons; crowns will be sprayed out and we will spray with copper early for downy mildew.

Please consider all options and make informed decisions about the best way to move forward to aim for a better outcome next year.

News from our CEO

A three to four-week delay in harvesting, coupled with unpredictable weather conditions, has presented another challenging season for our dried grape industry.

Drying conditions have not been excellent, but have been much improved compared to last year’s wet harvest season.

Light coloured fruits are limited in volume.

This has also highlighted the desperate need for early harvesting varieties in our industry.

We are optimistically working on some promising new varieties that have such characteristics and we hope to make them available to growers in a timely manner.

The new harvester drawing project, driven by the Innovation Committee, chaired by Ashley Johnstone, has led to seven units/harvesters being ordered and manufactured.

The success of such a project has highlighted the importance and significance of a robust industry R&D innovation program.

A proposed change to our current R&D levy structure (from current $11/tonne to a proposed $20/tonne) is in progress and we need your support to make it happen from the 2025 season. (More on page 32).

The levy, matched by government funding, will guarantee sufficient R&D funding being delivered to support the dried grape industry into the future.v

Thomas Cheung | CEO Mark King | Chair

Project yields promising results

The 10 Tonne Project, funded by the Australian Government under the Murray-Darling Basin Economic Development Program has come to an end.

The four demonstration sites have proven that Sunmuscat and Sunglo can average yields of more than 10 tonnes/ ha over three consecutive seasons. Increased fertiliser application to replace the nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) removed with 10 tonnes of fruit was a key to maintaining the yields.

It is also essential to maintain adequate irrigation during the season and post-harvest, as well as maintain pest and disease control.

The GrowCare pest and disease alerts were funded through the 10 Tonne Project.

Over winter, the DFA will look at how timely pest and disease warnings can be provided for growers now that the funding for the alerts is no longer available. Another positive outcome identified in this project is the industry-wide shift

Hello from the communications desk…

I join Stephen in this edition’s column to give a brief update on what’s been happening behind the scenes in communications for Dried Fruits Australia.

In addition to our regular fortnightly Currant News editions, as well as our quarterly Vine magazines, we’ve also been working on several other communications-based projects.

You may have noticed our Season Update films we’ve been producing for the 2023 season. We will continue

in varieties. Sultana was, historically, the backbone of the industry, but it is very difficult to get this variety to crop consistently from year to year at or above the 10 tonnes per hectare target.

As of January 2022, for the first time in the industry’s 130-year history, the sultana variety is no longer the dominant planting, handing over the mantle to Sunmuscat.

It is clear from the SunRISE Mapping data that the industry is investing in a transition to those more consistently producing varieties (Sunmuscat, Sunglo, Selma Pete, Sugra 39 and Carina Currants).

Trellis systems on show

Field walks have focused on alternative trellis systems this summer.

A comparison of some trellis systems developed in Sunraysia recently and Shaw swingarm is presented on page 18-19.

Tractors go electric

There is lots of news in the press about electric cars and trucks – but what about tractors?

Well, they exist, and they are already on the market and can be ordered from the USA, with a list

to bring you updates throughout the year, with the films being posted on our YouTube channel and shared on our social media platforms and in our newsletter.

In preparation for the return to overseas marketing activities (more on this on P27), our industry brochure is having a well-overdue refresh, while the film showcasing our industry is also being updated to reflect areas of the industry that have become more modern and mechanised. Meanwhile, our new DFA website is nearing completion and we look forward to launching that soon.

price of about AU$100,00, what’s more they are autonomous.

A single operator can operate up to eight tractors at a time.

The operating costs of an electric tractor are 90 per cent less than a diesel-powered machine. This is because the cost of diesel and diesel drivetrain maintenance are eliminated. The battery has a 14-hour run time. The Monark MK-V is sold out until the end of 2023. The fully electric tractor produces 40 hp (30kW) continuous and 70 hp (52.5 kW) peak. It has a 540 PTO RPM, and can tow a 1000-litre spray cart.v

Stephen Kelly

Dried Fruits Australia field officer 03 5023 5174

projects@driedfruitsaustralia.org.au

If you do not receive our fortnightly Currant News newsletter, please email your details (name, company/ role in industry) to communications@ driedfruitsaustralia.org.au to be added to our mailing list.v

Megan Frankel-Vaughan

Season in the regions

Dominic Sergi, Mildura SergiFresh

Overall, how is the season progressing for Sunraysia growers? The start of the season was not too bad. It’s getting a bit more difficult now, everything is coming in at the same time. I’ve got about two weeks left, but I do fear that for some growers who aren’t quite as ahead there may be some fruit left on vines toward the very end.

What were the season highs? The start of the season we had better prices, movement was a bit more free, which considering the season was the best we could hope for.

What were the season lows?

There was downy mildew early on and some growers will have lost a percentage but possibly won’t know until the end of the season what that scale of loss was.

Have Sunraysia growers connected regularly during the season to chat about how the season is going or things growers can do to be more collaborative?

I have a lot of friends who are growers and so we chat a lot, but everyone is busy. Growers have just been trying to get through the season. There would not be many growers who saw conditions as bad as they have been, and that’s where experience comes in. One thing I’ve done is asked a lot of older growers, my dad for instance, about whether he’d seen seasons like this one and for a lot, it wasn’t something they’d seen, so the year has been an eye-opener, with lots learnt.

Joe Garreffa, Euston/Robinvale Sturt Produce

Overall, how is the season progressing for NSW growers? Overall, the season for NSW growers has been progressing well, despite the 2-3 week delay to the start of the season. This, however, caused an overlap of whites, especially affecting Thompson Seedless demand. Early reds also had demand issues due to a glut.

What were the season highs? The high of the season I think would be the fact that some varieties received some unexpectedly good prices and demand was good. There has also been a slight improvement in the availability of labour, which has helped industry with the late start to the season. However, the cost of labour has still increased.

Amancio Cuesta, Queensland Costa Group

Overall, how did the season progress for Queensland growers? Overall the season was a positive season considering some of the challenges that we encountered. Movement of fruit was good with strong sales into Christmas

What were the season highs? Successful first year of production from new growing region in Hughenden was very promising and exciting for the industry

What were the season lows? Delayed season start date coincided with pre harvest rain which caused

What were the season lows? Some of the lows of the season include the fact that there are still those growers out there that insist on sending sour fruit to overseas markets. This is very quickly ruining the reputation of Australian table grapes and our main selling point is TASTE. Too many growers look at the short-term and not the long-term.

Have NSW growers connected regularly during the season to chat about how the season is going? Many growers in the area have had concerns about sending immature fruit to market when getting together. There have also been concerns this year about the quality of Thompson Seedless. The cooler conditions were not favourable for maturity and market sustainability are a concern. Growers have also been concerned about the excessive quality assurance requirements they have to undertake.

issues with harvest and reduced harvest yields on some varieties Did Queensland growers benefit from weekly catchups during harvest season? How? Queensland growers connect weekly during the harvest season and these meetings are a great way to get growers from each region to catch up and update on the progress of their crops and some of the challenges they are encountering. It is also an excellent platform for growers to get information from the Brisbane/Sydney and Melbourne wholesale markets on movement of table grapes within each market and competing lines.

Bill Avery, South Australia

Talia Farms

How did the season progress for South Australian growers? In general, we had a wet cold spring, a lot of disease pressure, especially downy mildew, delayed harvest due to ripening – virtually the same as Sunraysia. The markets are up 40 per cent on last year, but it’s not quite half on what it was pre-Covid.

What have been the season highs? I’m not yet harvesting this year, my first year will be next year, but it’s been a good year for growing young vines – it hasn’t been too hot and plenty of rain early and the vines took off.

For producing growers, the south Australian market has had low quantities so that’s kept the prices high.

Have there been any season lows? The disease pressure and delayed ripening and harvest have provided challenges. We only had two days over 40 degrees.

Do the South Australian growers connect regularly? There are only a few growers in South Australia. We don’t currently get together, but that’s one of my objectives – to meet in person and have a chinwag.

Peter Nuich, WA Nuo’s Grapes

Overall, how did the season progress for WA growers before harvest? Down south, at Fruitico they’ll be picking into May. For Swan Valley growers, about 98 per cent of growers are finished now. Most of the growers in the Valley were part of the Queensland fruit fly (Qfly) quarantine period (after a detection was made in mid-March). It was only a small section in the Valley in the north-east who were exempt. The Western Australian Government put in a 15 km exclusion zone around the detection location in Bayswater, that required either the fruit to be methyl bromide treated or go into a certified cool room for 18 days at 0-2 degrees transported. I don’t think any grower in the Valley had a cool room capacity!

All the fruit not yet harvested was sent up to Northern Valley Packers, Bendoon. The fruit was collected from the growers’ properties in a refrigerated truck, was placed into the cool rooms, and once the cool rooms are full, the doors had to remain closed for 18 days. There were

feeling? It’s been a bit of a challenge. There have been outbreaks of Qfly previously but they weren’t in any growing regions. This time it’s included most of the Swan Valley, due to the 15-km exclusion zone. Growers down south never had any issue because they were outside the zone. Have there been any highs? Or any light at the end of the tunnel? By the time the protocols were put in place, about 80 per cent of the crop was picked off.

It was just lucky it happened when it did happen. If it had have happened at the start of the season there wouldn’t have been the cool room capacity to store the full harvest of fruit, because you have to wait 18 days before you can put more fruit in. Have there been any collective efforts growers have made to try to work together? Growers have organised to get a certain amount of fruit picked by a certain time and then trucks would come to pick up growers’ fruit on that day so when they pick up the fruit they have enough to fill the cool room. Growers have worked together to organise pick up times for the trucks (Thursdays/Fridays) and pickups,

There’s more to this story. Scan the QR code to read more.

QUALITY

When you buy IFG table grapes through a licensed marketer, you can be assured that the quality will be top tier. To learn more about authorised licensed marketers, contact IFG’s Australian Commercial Manager Henry Fisk at h sk@ifg.world

@internationalfruitgenetics

Weighing up trellis systems

Dried Fruits Australia’s most recent field events have highlighted the range of trellis systems in use in the industry today.

Innovation is at the heart of the industry. The innovative Shaw swingarm trellis developed by Ivan Shaw revolutionised the dried grape industry and created a production system that allowed for fruit to be dried on the vine. Growers haven’t stopped there. A range of dried grape producers continue to test different options in pursuit of higher yields in production systems that suit their needs, Here we look at some of the trellis designs that are currently being used across the industry. From the common to the novel, we take a closer look at what it takes to operate properties using these different systems, as well as the crops these systems can yield.

Shaw swingarm trellis: Shaw swingarm trellis is the most common trellis system in the Australian dried grape industry today. Developed by Ivan Shaw, the system was designed specifically to allow for vine drying fruit.

Yields: DFA projects have proven that growers can consistently yield more than 10 tonnes per hectare with best practice management on this system.

Pros: The Shaw swingarm trellis separates replacement canes from cropping canes, and ensures replacement canes can grow up into the sunlight. This system can be mechanically summer pruned and harvested, with some growers also now using mechanised systems to winter prune.

Cons: Manual labour is still involved in tipping and pinning, and specialised equipment is needed. Conventional winegrape harvesters cannot be used for this trellis system.

SHAW SWINGARM TRELLIS

SWINGING PERGOLA TRELLIS

VERTICAL TRELLIS

BIANNUAL CROPPING PERGOLA

Swinging pergola trellis:

Allan Long’s swinging pergola trellis – or narrow row trellis system – is a modified version of the Shaw swingarm trellis, incorporating elements from production systems in the US where fruit is grown on a fixed pergola system.

Vines are grown in 7ft rows, down from the traditional 11ft row.

A latch at the fruiting arm joins at the top of another fruiting arm to give structure and create a pergola in every second row.

Yield: This system has proven to be very high yielding, with Allan’s patch of Selma Pete taking out the 2022 Top Crop Award with a yield of 15.81 tonnes per hectare.

Pros: In addition to being very high yielding, pest and disease control is good because of good access to the fruit. Weed control is simple because sunlight is blocked out.

This system is manageable for a single operator on a smallerscale block. Six hectares can be managed by a single operator three days a week.

Cons: Specialised equipment is needed for wetting and harvesting, while cutting and pruning are done manually.

Vertical trellis:

The vertical trellis is less common in the Australian dried grape industry.

Peter Liakos grows Selma Pete, Sunglo and sunmuscat on the vertical system, where everything grows in one vertical line, with replacement canes growing loose and fruiting canes being rolled onto two wires. There is a loose wire and clip that holds everything in place.

Pros: Fruit can be harvested with a standard winegrape harvester, which is much more readily available. Replacement canes are free to grow upwards, receiving light, optimising potential yield. A suitable system if producers have good access to semi-skilled labour for manual work.

Cons: Manual cutting, manual winter operation, no comparative studies or data on yield capacity.

Biannual cropping pergola:

One of the more unique production systems in the industry, Allan Long has planted a small trial patch in a fixed pergolla trellis system, with biannual cropping.

Replacement canes grow in year one, sitting on top of a wire structure. In year one, water, fertiliser and pest and disease costs are reduced.

In year two, those canes produce fruit, and water, fertiliser and pest and disease outputs are higher.

Pros: Theoretically, the yield will double on harvest years. Most labour costs are in the production year with income being biannual.

Cons: Specialised equipment is needed to grow on this fixed pergola trellis, with manual cutting. This is currently only a small trial patch growing a trial variety of sultanatype fruit. There is no comparative data on this trellis system. Biannual cropping could be riskier. v

Technology optimises crops

TRIAL DRIVES FARMING DECISIONS

New tree scanning technology trialled this year in Australian prune crops is helping growers produce a more uniform crop of larger sized fruit.

The trial using Green Atlas Cartographer has been funded through the AgriFutures Australia Producer Technology Uptake Program, which supports eligible producer groups in their efforts to increase adoption of technology solutions on-farm.

The aim of the trial was to demonstrate fruit scanning technology to Australian prune growers to help improve their commercial viability.

Australian Prune Industry Association deputy chairman Michael Zalunardo was keen to be part of the trial, which included five growers in the Griffith region.

“Knowing how much to thin trees is always a challenge,” he said.

“If you choose not to thin, you run the risk of producing a large crop of small fruit and there’s simply no money in that.

“Alternatively, if you thin too hard, the prunes will be bigger, but there’s not enough of it.”

Clear picture of crops

Green Atlas’ technology caters to the needs of every tree, according to Green Atlas co-founder Steve Scheding.

The scanning equipment identifies all flowers and fruits in an orchard at all stages of the fruit life cycle.

The maps generated show fruit count, size and colour and canopy vigour enabling precision management decisions about individual trees to increase production and reduce operating costs over the entire orchard.

“By optimising in-field labour, use of sprays and other inputs and logistics, a grower’s bottom line is improved. At the other end, revenue is improved with more fruit of a higher quality and consistency and a higher degree of certainty for marketing activities,” Steve said.

Growers participating in the trial selected the patches to be scanned with the Cartographer in conjunction with Steve.

Unfortunately, unseasonal heavy rain meant that one grower’s patches were not able to be accessed and scanned, while the remaining five growers had their property scanned in late October to early November 2022.

To ensure that the data was correctly calibrated, “ground-truth” physical counts were completed at the same time as the scanning.

“It’s important to ensure that what the technology sees is the same as what is actually present in the trees, and our ground-truth counts help us to build appropriate image processing models for each of the different crops that we operate in,” he said.

The information is processed into fruit distribution maps and a report to assist the grower decide on tree-shaking (fruit thinning) requirements and forward yield estimates on post-thinned blocks.

Technology trial yields results

Michael had two scanning runs conducted at his property, one prethinning and the other, four weeks after thinning, to see the effects.

The Cartographer software captures each of the buds or fruits present on the tree from the scanned image, enabling it to calculate the fruit density on each tree.

PRE-THINNING SCAN POST-THINNING SCAN

“I found the information really quite interesting,” Michael said.

“The initial scan confirmed high variability between the trees with some trees in the patch showing a fruit count of 6000 and some 12,000. We shook those trees with the extra fruit a bit longer than the rest, and the post-thinning scan definitely showed a more even fruit distribution throughout the block.

“The post-thinning scan has produced a map with a lot more yellow colouring, and a lot less of the navy coloured, heavily laden trees. It shows we could have thinned the right-hand corner a little harder, but the truth is, I was sceptical about the technology and held back a little.

“Saying that, now that I have seen the map from the second scan, I won’t be so hesitant to trust the data next time.

“And yes, there will be a next time. I think this is a great tool and I will trial it again in the future, particularly if it is a large crop.”

Steve said that Green Atlas’ Cartographer and fruit maps were also useful when crop loads were small.

“Two growers made decisions not to shake trees, based on the Green Atlas maps and their assessment of

a low fruit load. In these cases, the maps were a useful tool to confirm the grower’s own assessment, and to help predict final yields,” Steve said.

Another trial grower, Frank DeRossi, agreed.

“Scanning made it more convincing that thinning was not required as early visual inspection showed less fruit than last year, when I had a massive crop,” Frank said.

APIA chairman Tony Toscan was a trial participant and made the decision not to shake.

“In making the decision not thin, we considered not only the information provided by the Green Atlas maps, but also our own observations, including a fruit count after harvesting fruit from several trees and estimating that fruit load was down to 35005000 pieces/tree,” he said.

“We are learning that crop load is dependent on tree age, canopy size and tree density (360 - 400 trees per ha) –for us, a fruit count of 3500-4500/tree is ideal. We will aim for that in future.”

Research continues through production

The final components of the Green Atlas trial are still to be completed.

Yenda Producers staff have assisted APIA in collecting data to help validate the Green Atlas scanning process and benefits to the tree from balanced cropping.

This data included fruit size, number of fruit/kg and brix levels for both treated and untreated (control) trees.

Angas Park Fruit Company staff will also record various quality features, including fruit size and sugar levels in the dried fruit.

APIA intends to prepare one or two case studies of growers involved in the trial to highlight the technology’s relevance to Australian prune growers, including those with different prune varieties and tree ages.

This project is supported by funding from AgriFutures Australia in partnership with Green Atlas and the Australian Prune Industry Association v

Pre-thinning scans at Michael Zalunardo’s block in Bilbul show a large proportion of heavily laden trees.

Following the thinning advice, the post-thinning scan (right) shows a much more even distribution of fruit density per tree.

Dried grape trade report

The latest dried grape import and export statistics.

EXPORTS

JULY 2022 – JANUARY 2023

TOTAL EXPORTS 1933 tonnes WITH EXPORT VALUE OF $9.9 million

IMPORTS

MARCH 2022 – FEBRUARY 2023

TOTAL IMPORTS 20,252 tonnes

GERMANY 484 t $2.3 mil CHINA 566 t $2.9 mil

TOP EXPORT DESTINATIONS

JAPAN 252 t $1.4 mil

VIETNAM 133 t $0.73 mil

ITALY 403 t $1.9 mil

OTHER (TSRS)

Total: 1826 t

Iran: 77 t

Turkey: 159 t

Chile: 496 t

Argentina: 12 t

India: 16 t

SULTANAS

USA: 468 t

China: 6 t

South Africa: 429 t

Pakistan: 103 t

Other: 59 t

Consumer profile deep dive

As part of multi-industry project MT21003, Hort Innovation engaged Kantar to examine consumer demand, looking at opportunities to increase demand across all horticultural commodities.

The table grape deep dive contained interesting insights into table grape consumer behaviour.

56% don’t really notice or mind variety for different purposes

61% ate as a snack, compared with 49 per cent for other fruit

TOP STRENGTHS

Refreshing

Quick & easy

Already available

Consume on-the-go

TOP BARRIERS

Expensive

Poor quality

Bruises easily

TOP 4 KEY SUBSTITUTES

Banana Apple Toast Yoghurt

36% respondents ate grapes as a meal of their own, vs 28% all fruit

80% ate grapes at home. People like to eat table grapes during their downtime, either watching TV or relaxing

63% ate grapes fresh on their own vs 52% for all fruits

The 2023 export season encountered a reawakening of international marketing and trade promotion after Covid compelled exporters to throw away the marketing rule book three years ago.

The Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) worked collaboratively with state and federal governments, along with Hort Innovation, to maintain a strong international presence for Australia’s table grapes.

Food and beverage trade tours and expos returned strongly this table grape export season, and in-market campaigns have further developed in-store and digital efforts.

The past few years paved the way for hybrid international trade promotion, swapping outbound missions for virtual tours, launches and presentations, and online campaigns focussed on social media balanced with targeted retail promotion.

While some markets are still benefiting from digitally targeted marketing efforts, many international markets have eagerly embraced the return of

Trading up

face-to-face events, heavily valuing these as trust-building activities.

Expos shine spotlight

Large-scale trade shows took a significant hit over Covid, but as Asia Fruit Logistica (AFL) proved back in November, food and beverage trade shows are back.

ATGA CEO Jeff Scott attended AFL in Thailand as a guest of Hort Innovation, while ATGA team member Karen Connolly spruiked new varieties at FOODEX in Japan in March alongside the Victorian Government’s Global Victoria site.

Jeff said these trade shows were an integral part of maintaining Australia’s reputation as an exporter of high quality fresh fruit and timing is paramount in promoting the season.

Mission to strengthen relationships

Pre-season and in-season trade tours also complement trade show attendance in creating opportunities for exporters in attendance and the industry at large.

Jeff attended a week-long tour of Vietnam in March with Austrade, strengthening relationships in not only key cities but smaller

regional centres as well.

“We always undertake trade tours like this, in key markets, just prior to commencing our export harvest season. The goal is to inform everybody about what to expect and to generate excitement and interest in Australian grapes,” Jeff said. “Despite what’s happened over the past few years, Asian countries still want to have face-to-face meetings. They want to develop personal relationships and know who they are trading with.

“These trade missions are very beneficial in achieving those strong relationship and network-building activities.”

In addition to pre-season trade tours, Hort Innovation conducted an outbound mission to India in August last year to support table grape exporters to expand their potential in currently underutilised international markets.

A report on the outbound mission recently been released by Hort Innovation examines the opportunities and challenges for exporting to the developing market.

Key highlights included one-to-one meetings with foreign industry executives, pre-screening business matching and networking with

importers, distributors, wholesalers and retail category buyers from key supermarket chains in India. India’s rising awareness regarding the health benefits of consuming fruits has led to a boost in table grape consumption, positively impacting demand and growth of the table grape market.

The table grape market in India is projected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 7.67 per cent, and due to its lack of cold chain infrastructure, imports of table grapes are expected to rise. India is also experiencing ongoing urbanisation and rising middle-class, with a strong focus on digital trade, so technologically strong export markets will be favoured as India’s modern trade pie gets bigger.

Virtual reality

While in-person presence provides unique opportunities, Jeff said that virtual campaign launches and presentations in other key focus markets leverage the ability to connect retailers without favouring one over another.

“This season I have completed virtual presentations to Indonesia, Thailand, China, Malaysia and the Philippines,” Jeff said. “These trade launches are very beneficial as there is a collective audience of the major importers and retailers in attendance.

“The presentation includes information on the current season, new varieties, harvest times and information on upcoming promotional activities in those countries.

Attendees are also interested in the growing and export processes and innovation within our industry.”

Benefits and burdens

A standout in most countries has been enquiries about new varieties

and enhancements to industry. Asian markets, in particular, are keen to understand how the industry is embracing technology to enhance growing practices and postharvest storage, and retailers are always excited to learn about the promotional activities we’re planning in their retail stores in market.

A key takeaway from these trade tours is that opportunities exist for Australian exporters to “spread our footprint to some of the second and third tier cities in most countries”, Jeff said.

Jeff said while Australian grapes are still perceived as being “very clean, fresh and safe”, other industries are improving their quality every year, in particular Peru and Chile.

Australia has been set a task to only send premium quality fruit that the Asian markets expect.

“The challenge for Australian growers is to deliver great quality and mature fruit,” Jeff said. “If we continue to do this then the returns will be there for the growers. However, if we deliver immature fruit and not what we have promised then a country such as Peru will quickly take our market share.

“There may be short-term gains but there will be long term pain. Importers will look at alternative supply going forward and the price-return to our growers will drop. It is imperative to maintain that quality niche that we have delivered in previous years.”

See following page for some campaign highlights in key markets. v

There’s more to this story. Scan the QR code to read more.

Export marketing

INDONESIA THAILAND JAPAN

The Indonesian launch included an opportunity for importers and retailers to network, which pleased attendees.

The successful launch event saw 30 guests attend, comprising media, influencers and industry partners. The activity generated content from five online media and reached more than 300,000 people. While the retail program was paused during Ramadan, instore displays and cooking demonstrations have now begun, as well as gift-with-purchase and vouchers in some retail stores.

SOUTH KOREA

Uncertainty around product arrival meant the launch event was replaced with content creation from one of South Korea’s macro influencers. Content included a one-minute video in collaboration with @Cheongdamunni, a popular influencer in the F&B sector with more than 6 million followers across social media. This focus on social media allowed for information to reach a wider audience and younger demographic. In-store sampling took place, with more to come across May as product supply continues.

Timelines were pushed back by a month due to a delay in shipment. Partnerships with retailers helped navigate the quick turnarounds needed to make the launch happen quickly, and there is enough stock to ensure supply to all stores during the promotion period.

A digital billboard promoting Australian table grapes located in the centre of Bangkok, near major retailers, is projected to have a reach of five million consumers.

Successful launch events took place, with the rollout of the retail program occurring across May.

MALAYSIA

Malaysia launched first, which helped to secure partners and get Australian grapes ahead of their South African counterpart. More than 30 industry partners, media and influencers attended the launch event. Retailers stocked up after the launch as they found the event informative. The campaign was tracking well in terms of both performance and timeline, though experienced a delay due to fasting season in observance of Ramadan. This is favourable, according to importers, as the later season stock tastes better.

Online promotions on e-commerce platforms are underway, with the influence of these platforms growing

Japan’s successful launch event held in April sparked interest from various stakeholders. A chef prepared a special menu featuring recipes that demonstrated the versatility of grapes.

The delay in shipment led to a later launch, but this pause allowed time for the recipe development.

THE PHILLIPINES

The delay in shipment greatly impacted the campaign’s timeline, with stock arriving four weeks after projected.

An exciting part of the launch event included an interactive element, where guests could pick their own grapes from makeshift vines.

The retail program will continue across May, with influencers posting in late April to generate buzz.

The season start time allowed Australian grapes to maximise peak season of stocks in market, by both quality and quantity, however South Africa’s campaign has also kicked off – with a similar price point and stock amount.

The launch event exceeded expectations, with five key online leaders and 17 media attending, while an in-store display competition, promotion and giftwith-purchase have commenced.

700 merchandise “goodies” were also delivered to support importers.

VIETNAM

Back on world stage

DRIED GRAPE MARKETING PROGRAM RETURNS

After a more than threeyear absence from the world stage, Dried Fruits Australia’s joint export marketing program will return again this year.

Due to Covid interruptions, the last export promotional activity for the industry was back in 2019.

DFA chief executive officer Thomas Cheung said there was an urgent need for the industry to reconnect with export markets and customers.

“In line with DFA’s Strategic Plan to sustain and grow profitable markets, we need to actively go out to positively promote our industry and products to the world,” he said.

“We need to continue to pursue markets and customers who are willing to pay premium prices for our quality fruits.”

DFA will take part in two export marketing events this year, SIAL Shanghai in May, and Anuga Europe in October.

DFA will also tour to visit customers to gain a stronger understanding of how they use Australia’s quality

Snapshot of activities

SIAL Shanghai marketing trip: May 2023

The Chinese market has become a significant one for the Australian dried fruits industry over the past three to five years, accounting for about 25 per cent of the industry's total export volume at about $6 million per year.

The Australian dried fruit industry has an ambitious plan to increase this export volume by five times (with a current Chinese market share of less than 1 per cent) in the next five years to 6 per cent.

products, and how customers can be better supported.

Thomas said the forecast for the 2024 crop intake was high, and the industry needed to build a solid foundation for its export business.

“We need to selectively choose markets and customers to maintain and further improve processors’ market selling prices, which will improve growers’ returns,” he said.

“Moving forward, we expect our total crop intake to exceed 25,000 tonnes in the foreseeable future. The industry needs a robust marketing program to support the

forthcoming increased crop volume.”

Thomas hopes to expand the joint export marketing program with more industryorganised events from next season.

The joint export marketing program is a collaborative project between DFA, growers, processors Sunbeam Foods and Australian Premium Dried Fruits, and Hort Innovation Australia.

The program is carefully designed, led and managed by DFA, with exhibition booths under the DFA banner, joined by processors, to promote the Australian dried fruit industry and its quality Australian dried grapes.v

There is an urgent need for the industry to return to the Chinese market to consolidate and further develop its export business, or risk losing market shares to other dried grape producing countries, including Turkey, South Africa and Chile.

Anuga European marketing trip: October 2023

European markets have long been the Australian industry’s traditional markets.

About half of the dried grape industry’s export volume, valued at about $12

million per year, is bound for Europe. The industry has an ambitious plan to increase the current volume by four times in the next five years, increasing market share from .5 per cent to 2 per cent of the European market.

Interruptions

due to Covid

over the past three years have put Australia’s market shares at risk to other dried grape producing countries.

Returning to Europe will aim to strengthen and further develop Australia’s dried grape export business.v

Vision drives innovation

IVAN SHAW

It would be difficult to find someone who has had as much impact on the dried grape industry as Ivan Shaw.

Best known for his development of the Shaw swingarm trellis, which revolutionised the way fruit was grown and dried – and opened the door to a mechanised production system – Ivan has been responsible for more than people realise.

There aren’t many parts of the modern dried grape production system that Ivan hasn’t played a part in.

From the trellis, to sprayers, harvesting, drying and even processing, there’s little he’s not done.

Ivan was suitably rewarded for his contribution to the industry in 2005 with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM).

He harvested his last crop of dried fruit in 2016 before his retirement and has taken a moment to reflect on his time in the industry and to look to its future.

REFLECTS ON TIME IN INDUSTRY

Back to the beginning

Growing up on an irrigation farm in central Victoria, growing dried grapes wasn’t something Ivan had ever thought of until he met his future wife Jude, whose family owned a block.

He’d got into steel construction and decided to “do something sensible”, so went to teachers' college in Adelaide, where he taught ceramics.

When the pair moved to the region where Jude’s father Norm Preisig was a dried fruit grower, Ivan got his first real taste of the industry.

It was around this time that trellis drying was introduced through the CSIRO and Ivan worked with Norm to create a harvester, which went on to win a prize at the Irymple Gadget and Machinery Field Days in 1977.

As it turned out, that little harvester was just the beginning of Ivan’s innovations in the dried grape industry.

He and Jude decided to stay in Sunraysia and to buy some of her dad’s property.

“We built some of these little harvesters to sell to other growers to help pay for the place,” Ivan said.

“I think we made about 35 harvesters over five or six years. It was a lot of work.”

During that time, he developed a different way of dehydrating the fruit too, which replaced the Hudson dryer, which Ivan said had been a great innovation in the 1960s.

It ran on kerosene and involved manually shovelling fruit in and out.

“Having shovelled a couple of loads of that, I thought ‘I'm not sure about this’, so we made these individual bins that you could tip out and tip the fruit in and that did speed it up.” The burner used gas, and was designed to recycle some of the hot air.

He made many of those in the early '80s, before the workload became too much and a local engineering firm took on the work.

“But I could never totally leave it alone, so I kept developing other stuff as well,” Ivan said.

“I’ve worked myself to death making things to save work,” he joked.

Shaw trellis revolutionises industry

At a time when most vines were old plantings, and almost all were grown on T trellis, CSIRO held a field day looking at hanging canes instead of T trellis. This included a basic swingarm-type principle.

“It had lots going for it, but it sometimes fell over, as it wasn’t structurally stable and hence the industry dismissed it,” Ivan explained.

“It was deemed impractical and assumed no one would ever take it up, but I thought that’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”

Ivan then developed the Christmas tree trellis, with the aim of being able to cut mechanically in summer.

“That was great for two to three years, but because canes hung down it created a tent type microclimate, and became a bit unproductive after a while,” he said.

Ivan then went back to looking at the principles of swingarm, determined to make it practical and functioning.

The first swingarm was made in about 1991 and is still functioning in Ivan’s former vineyard, which is now neighbouring his Merbein South home.

“It allowed mechanical cutting to be much easier, it allowed the microclimate of the vine to work, it allowed better spray penetration,” Ivan said.

“We could remove leaves to make the dip mixture work better, and it distributed the fruit a lot better. It took into account the physiology of the vine and the need to get canes up into the sunlight in order to produce fruitful buds.

“So it’s stuck.”

Striving for innovation

Ivan is realistic, but humble, about the contribution he made to the dried grape industry. He said his swingarm trellis design was an evolution of different principles, including from the CSIRO.

“It’s important to recognise that - nothing ever comes from nothing,” he said.

“So it’s really a matter in life of recognising what can potentially work and putting it into practise and having faith in it until you get it right rather than saying you’re going to get it right from absolute scratch. “Sometimes you can do that, but generally speaking, things evolve, they don’t just happen, this was an evolution of that principle.”

His background in the arts, as well as a willingness to try new things

was part of Ivan’s motivation.

“I think everybody has things like that they think about - you’ve just got to do them sometimes,” he said.

“Sometimes you can think about things but not actually do it, so you never know if they’re going to work. Sometimes you've got to have a fairly big scrap pile of things that didn’t work before achieving your goal.

“I was always driven by the notion that we could mechanise the industry a lot more than it is.”

Vision becomes reality

The successful development and uptake of the Shaw swingarm trellis paved the way for progress in mechanising the industry and thus allowing dried grapes to be grown on scale.

The new trellis system meant a new, wider harvester – specific to dried grapes – was needed.

Top left: Shaw radial head single row harvester in action, Middle: Ivan Shaw and his father-inlaw Norm Preisig developed a new dried grape harvester in 1976

Below left: Ivan Shaw filling Shaw drying bins with a prototype form-mounted hydraulic bin tipper in the early 1980s. Middle: Swingarm trellis Right: Ivan Shaw with the Shaw swingarm trellis

Ivan got to work again.

“When we put in swingarm, we couldn’t fit a general winegrape harvester over it,” he said.

“There wasn’t the scope to harvest swingarm at scale – there was a bottleneck, so the industry did fund me a little bit to build a prototype harvester to do that.”

That was a self propelled, oneman unit with the first radial head to be used on dried grapes.

The tractor-towed Shaw radial head harvester was later developed, with about six machines built, designed to harvest single rows, delivering fruit over the row.

It’s this harvester, with some modifications, that new machines entering the industry are based on. While the Shaw swingarm trellis has become industry best practice, it’s not the only solution to operating a profitable dried grape business.

“You've got to be able to manage the vines – swingarm is a piece of the puzzle,” Ivan said. “You’ve got to know how to grow vines with proper nutrition and understand how to dry fruit.”

Proudest moments

While Ivan’s handiwork is evident in equipment like trellis designs and harvesters across the growing region, one of his proudest achievements is one he says many might not know about.

He said he was proud to have received an OAM for his efforts, but that designing and building the dried grape processing and packing plant at Wargan was among his greatest projects“ I was shown a shed and asked ‘can you fit something in here?’,” Ivan explained. He worked off research into processing undertaken by John Fielke from Uni SA.

“That was a major project. It grew as we went on and I realised what I’d taken on,” he said.

“We put in a lot of late nights. That was a huge undertaking.

“I was very relieved when I saw fruit come out the other end because we made every individual component of that on site, except for a laser scanner and a filter. It was pretty gratifying to see fruit come out the other end.”

With this, Ivan added another achievement to a long list of industry contributions.

“If you took fruit from a property, it was grown under our techniques, with our machines, harvested and dried with our machines, and put through the processor through our machines.”

The way forward

Reflecting on his time in the industry, Ivan said it had been a steady one, despite its reputation as the “poor cousin” of horticulture.

“But in fact, if you’ve adopted proven technology, done it properly and

been serious about it, it’s been a very good earner and a very interesting industry, so I’ve really enjoyed my time in the dried fruit industry,” he said.

Looking ahead, Ivan said it was important that the industry –from smaller growers to those managing larger plantings –embraced the technology and knowledge that already existed.

“People have planted up a lot of acreage in recent years, but there hasn’t been a match in expertise or machinery to go with it, and that needs to happen,” he said.

“I emphasise the point that it’s got to be done properly and there’s a skill attached to it.

“It’s so much more than growing wine grapes or table grapes. It’s a specialised industry. Good growers who do it successfully really need to be mentors to others. The industry can’t go forward without that expertise.”

Ivan says that with the right knowledge, and a quality product grown efficiently and consistently, the industry can reach its great potential. v

Pastro Ag offers technologically advanced, efficient and durable spray equipment that is built to last. Our sleek and innovative machinery is designed and manufactured in Australia, to withstand tough Australian conditions.

renowned for high performance, reliable machinery and industry knowledge second to none.

Connecting growers across the land

The Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) will aim to bridge the geographical boundaries of producers nation-wide with the launch of its online community group.

The Australian Table Grape Industry Growing Community will launch in May and be open to those employed – either in paid or unpaid roles – in table grape businesses in Australia.

ATGA communications manager Terryn Milner said the closed group would provide an opportunity for industry members to connect and collaborate, to enhance industry cohesion.

“If the last few years have shown us anything it’s that connection is really important, even when we’re physically isolated from others,” Terryn said.

“We have producers located all around Australia, and some are in really remote areas where they probably don’t chat regularly with any other producers

Shaping our communications

The Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) is calling for producers and industry members to help steer industry communications in the right direction!

The ATGA is seeking people in all growing regions to provide regular updates on local industry and advise on communications content.

Fancy yourself a writer? Photographer? Maybe you have ideas about what growers are interested in and feel like sharing.

from around Australia. Especially in challenging production years, I think it’s useful to reach out to others, who knows what might come of it.

“I think this group gives people working in table grape businesses the chance to learn more about producers in other regions, share information, resources and simply provide a bit of support for the industry.

“After a tricky year, I think we need it.”

The community group will share fortnightly Pick of the Bunch links, export data, job opportunities, events, innovative technologies, and generate talking points within industry.

ATGA communications and industry development staff will monitor and contribute to the community group as part of TG22001, Table grape industry communications program, which began in November 2022.

To join the group, people must have a profile in their own name. Anonymous users or those using dummy profiles will not be accepted.

If you need assistance in setting up a Facebook page, or joining the group, please contact Terryn at tmilner@atga.net.au v

Minimal contact is required for those interested in helping out and simply means engaging in regular phone calls and providing industry updates to our industry development or communications teams.

The ATGA wants growers to actively participate in the development of relevant communications content, to ensure all the ATGA communications avenues continue to meet the needs of the entire table grape growing community.

Contact Terryn: tmilner@atga.net.au to become involved.

Securing industry's future

DFA PURSUES LEVY INCREASE

For the first time in more than 30 years, Dried Fruits Australia (DFA) is pursuing an increase in the Dried Vine Fruits Research and Development Levy in an effort to secure the industry into the future.

At DFA’s 2022 annual general meeting producers proposed and voted on a change in the Research and Development Levy from $11/tonne to $20/tonne.

This levy has not been increased in more than 30 years and it was the view of those at the AGM that it has not kept pace with increasing costs and overall contributions required for funding quality research and development. This levy is the only funding that is then matched by the Commonwealth Government.

With a current average production of 15,000 tonnes per year, and a predicted increase to 25,000 - 30,000 tonnes within five years, the dried grape industry is focussed on continuous improvement to deliver on domestic and export market demands.

For this to occur the industry relies on research and development for new leading edge technologies, equipment and vine improvements to maintain and increase quality and capacity of production.

Grower and DFA chair Mark King said benchmarking had shown it was possible to consistently produce 10 tonnes of dried grapes to the hectare.

“Research and development on production could increase this figure even further,” he said.

DFA CEO Thomas Cheung said the peak industry body’s vision was to have a sustainable and innovative horticultural industry that consistently supplies high quality dried grapes to consumers.

“Demand for quality Australian dried grapes continues to grow in domestic retail, wholesale, foodservice and export markets,” he said.

“There is strong demand from Asian and European markets for high quality Australian dried grapes, therefore industry is endeavouring to increase production and maintain quality to meet and extend this demand along with developing new market opportunities across South-East Asia.”

Thomas said the current R&D levy has been expanded to cover a wide range of industry initiatives. In addition to the traditional R&D projects, it now also contains new market access and development, trade missions and industry study tours.

“Our current R&D levy is structurally outdated and not workable to deliver the outcomes the industry strategic plan sets out. We have been lagging behind many other industries, but it is never too late to get the change of R&D levy process started.”

Thomas said the process would take time and, if growers voted in favour of the proposed change, it would likely come into effect in season 2025.

Mark said research was a critical component for productivity gains.

“Historic research and development led to the successful dried on the vine Shaw swingarm trellis system and mechanised winter pruning and harvesting, which is now becoming commonplace across

the dried grape industry,” he said.

“New research and trials are needed to further refine these systems to make them as efficient and productive as possible, while maintaining quality.

“The industry needs to trial any new suitable vine varieties to produce high quality yield and help growers manage their risks across the season.”

Mark said in the past, much research had been based on small scale properties up to 50 hectares, but as the scale of properties grows, research needs to also be tailored to growing at scale.

While the Australian dried grape industry has been a global leader in research into dried grape production, Thomas said over the past decade, the ability of the industry to fund new research had become severely impacted through unavoidable hits to tonnages produced, increasingly due to severe weather events such as drought, hail, rain, floods and disease.

"It has become a challenge to deliver on new priority research and development strategies. Increasing the levy will help to deliver this crucial research and development and secure the industry into the future," he said.

Based on the direction of those at the 2022 AGM, DFA is pursuing the increase through the levy amendment process, which will include a grower vote later this year, as guided by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.v

Safeguarding beneficial insects in vineyards

Beneficial insects are the natural enemies of crop pests. Many Australian native arthropods are useful in managing pests, such as light brown apple moth, mealybug, pest mites and other troublesome species.

The Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) – in partnership with Cherry Growers Australia and Summerfruit Australia Limited, and supported by Agriculture Victoria – has developed a set of resources for producers that considers the toxic effects of some commonly used pesticides on beneficial insect populations.

Some beneficial insects, such as lacewings, cryptolaemus ladybirds, parasitic wasps (Trichogramma), and predatory mites, are available commercially and can be purchased from integrated pest management specialists to augment existing wild populations, or in response to a pest outbreak or flare. These,

plus many other predators and parasites, also occur naturally in and near vineyards and orchards. Agricultural chemicals can often have a negative impact on these beneficial species. The severity and nature of toxicity of each agrichemical varies according to the beneficial insect type. The project partners developed a range of resources, which include a guide to common beneficial insects showing the relative toxicity of pesticides that are commonly used in the table grape, cherry and summerfruit industries. The guide is summarised in a shed poster to aid in chemical selection. There is also a guide to planting indigenous shelterbelts to entice beneficial insects.

The information was sourced from research data, from a range of sources. The project scope allowed for only a selection of chemicals relevant to the participating industries. It is not a comprehensive list of all chemicals.

“Beneficial insect populations are incredibly useful in vineyards,”

ATGA team member and project partner Alison MacGregor said.

“As chemical availability continues to change, producers can help steer their integrated pest and disease management program in the right direction by encouraging beneficial populations where possible.

“Some biocontrol suppliers release commercially available beneficials, but there are a whole lot of naturally occurring beneficials that provide natural control in vineyards. Vineyard managers can encourage beneficial populations by maintaining refuge buffers of plants that support beneficial populations, and also selecting pesticides that cause minimum disruption to beneficials.

“While the project couldn’t look at every chemical used in grapes, this initial list is a great first step to help us make smarter decisions about using alternative ‘softer’ treatments.” v

All eyes on early varieties

AUSTRALIAN PREMIUM DRIED FRUITS

After a very concerning November and December where downy mildew outbreaks provided great uncertainty and damage to the crop, we had some great weather in January, February and March that stabilised the remaining fruit.

Yes, we had lost about half of the original estimate, but we still felt it was possible to salvage the season with the remaining crop.

We also hoped for a very high-grade product that we could supply markets, to repair some of the reputational damage from the 2022 season.

The maturity levels of the crop meant that a large portion was cut later than normal, exposing it to the rains in early April.

This meant that the overall quality was lower than hoped and another challenging year is ahead of us to meet customer expectations.

The climate has been creating more questions than answers in the last few seasons, so we hope a move from La Niña conditions to El Niño conditions in the coming season will see a better growing and harvest season in 2024. Most growers have moved into the specific dried fruit varieties of Sunmuscat, Sunglo and Carina, which have provided excellent results in previous seasons.

The late maturity of these varieties can definitely be an issue in seasons with mild and wet weather.

There is no doubt that the search for more early ripening varieties

is one of the next challenges for the Australian industry. Due to its inconsistency and weather tolerance, Thompson seedless is diminishing in volume as each year goes on.

Many growers have planted Sugra39 or Selma Pete as an early alternative, which are not yet producing in any great volumes. Hopefully we see strong results from these varieties, which spread the risk of the crop across a much greater time period.

They will also be exposed to the hotter summer weather, which is much more suited to fast drying of the grapes.

In terms of marketing these new varieties, we see the global market has a simple demand for sultanas, raisins and currants.

Yes, there are exceptions like Sunmuscat, that has generated a good demand in Asian markets, but any of the green varieties that are dried with wetting solution are sold as sultanas.

Carinas have taken the place of Zantes and are sold as currants.

Apart from the small market for seeded raisins (gordos), we do not really have a market competitive variety to offer as a raisin. We see strong opportunity in future to develop a red or black seedless variety dried as an Australian raisin, which could be a similar offer to the Chilean flame or American TSR raisins that dominate the global raisin market. We expect 2023 to be a very difficult season, with limited volume and average quality.

It is one that makes us already look forward to the next, as we are sure many growers feel this way also.

The outlook for Australian industry is still positive, but we need to string a few years of decent supply and quality together to win back the market interest and reputation we normally enjoy.

We have our fingers crossed the El Niño conditions can stabilise our weather pattern in the short term, so we can control the outcomes a little better going forward.v

Enquiries: Grower liaison officer Larry Dichiera 0488 199 221 larry@apdf.com.au

Above: A change in weather pattern from La Niña conditions to El Niño will bring a welcome change for growing and drying fruit.

Changing of the guard

SUNBEAM FOODS & ANGAS PARK

At the end of March 2023, Sunbeam Foods general manager Grant Leyden left the business to take up the role of general manager at Mildura Fruit Company (MFC).

MFC is a sister company of Sunbeam Foods, so essentially Grant’s transfer is an internal one and he takes over from Perry Hill, who has retired from the MFC business.

MFC is Australia’s premier citrus packer and exporter and this will be a new experience and challenge for Grant.

“Looking at the last eight or so years I am proud of the progressions in grower payments we have been able to bring through market price increases and the improved viability for all stakeholders this is starting to bring,” Grant said of his time at Sunbeam.

“The gains in efficiency and yield on farm and through factory processing have been impressive for those who have invested and are key to ongoing viability in an ever-cost increasing world.

“It is with great pleasure that I advise that Steve Sinclair, an existing Sunbeam Foods senior manager, has been appointed to take over from me in the Sunbeam general manager role.

“In his previous role as group procurement manager, Steve has overviewed the grower services department and all the other procurement activities for Sunbeam in his seven years with the business. He has also been instrumental in a lot of the improvement projects in the business over this time and a key contributor to the success of the business in recent years. Steve brings a great passion for the Sunbeam business, the dried fruit

industry and its multiple stakeholders.

“At this time, I would like to say farewell to all our growers and to wish you all the very best for the future. I’ve greatly enjoyed our interaction over the period.”

Dried vine fruit

In a season that started with the crop losses to downy mildew, challenges continued with delayed fruit maturity and then circumstances were made more difficult with moderate daily temperatures, periods of rain and colder humid nights.

The fruit intake has subsequently been considerably slower than normal and the fruit colour has been predominantly brown, but still good quality.

Growers are now scrambling to get the last of their fruit harvested and dehydrated.

Prunes

The result of strong sales in 2022 was that we were running short of Australian prunes to fill all the Angas Park product range.

The 1kg pitted prune product was changed over to imported to fill the void, which enabled the other products to be kept in Australian fruit to continue the full range on the shelf.

The grading of the 2023 crop commenced quickly to return the 1kg product to Australian fruit, returning the range to 100 per cent Aussie.

The early indications on the grading are showing that the expectation of a pittable size range around 70 per cent looks achievable. The quality of this harvest is good, with only some small patches of scarring being detrimental to the overall grade.

The volume received by Angas Park was

to expectations as grower estimates on crop load and yields were accurate. While the market could handle a great deal more volume than what is produced, it is pleasing that we have the grower support to keep the Angas Park brand in Australian fruit.

Dried tree fruit

The Angas Park intake of dried tree fruit is complete and the size and quality of the apricots is an improvement on the previous season. The overall intake is down due to the company’s orchard being at 50 per cent production with the replanting of trees taking place last year. We did receive good support from fresh and dried tree fruit growers for additional volume.v

Enquiries:

Grower services | 03 50514 400

Supply manager dried fruit

David Swain | 0407 834 044

Field officer (including SA)

Alan Lister | 0409 437 801

Field officer

Gary Simpson | 0429 960 234

Dried tree fruits operations manager – Loxton, Luke Fitzsimmons | 0431 894 515

Putting latch system to the test

It’s a small piece of metal making a big difference to the production of dried grapes on Rowena and Warren Smart’s property.

The couple have upgraded from the traditional pin on their property’s Shaw swingarm trellis system to a latch.

Manufactured by Rodney Trigg, the latch provides another method of locking swingarm, resulting in a stronger hold.

The Smarts installed their latches before the Shaw swingarm frames were brought out to the vineyard.

Rowena explained that they could be installed in an already functioning vineyard, and not just those redeveloping.

“If adding to existing plantations it will be time consuming, and possibly easier spread over two seasons to do each side. But in saying that it will be well worth it for the ease and convenience of running the farm,” she said.

“Since we were still in the set-up phase, we added them on to our secondhand frames and bent the arms to suit the hook.”

With a latch, swingarms don't fall free during the season, saving the labour-intensive job of lifting arms back into place with a heavy crop weighing them down.

Warren said harvest became much more difficult when individual swing arm pins freed themselves and the fruiting zone dropped and became unstable.

Rowena said that when Warren completed his certificate at the Department of Ag, he wasn’t happy with the design of the frame and knew there would be a better way, even putting together a prototype with washers and rod.

“When we decided to develop our properties to dried fruit in 2020, it was a no-brainer that the hooks be added to make it easier to hook the frames and not be rehooking

throughout the season,” she said.

So far, it’s working.

“We haven’t had to re-hook a frame since installing them, and we have at least a 4 tonne/acre crop on the vines this year,” Rowena said.

“We haven’t had to spend time rehooking or, as some people do, paying someone to rehook, which means money saved.”

This means that in addition to stabilising the vines while growing, harvest will also be more efficient and productive.

“Fruit will go through the harvester easier, instead of hanging lower and going under the fish plates, or sitting close to the post and not ending up in the bin,” Rowena said.

“When we harvest and all the fruit is in the bin, instead of having some being left behind, we will see its worth.”v

Left: Warren and Rowena Smart. Right: Shaw swingarm trellis latch.

The fruit quality of IvoryTM was extremely good this season in regard to flavour, crunch and uniformity.

Early Challenges during the Growing Season of 2022 in Australia

The table grape industry is one of the most valuable horticultural industries in Australia valued at more than $770 million in FY2021/221. An excellent geographical location to service Asian markets, a favorable climate of high sunshine hours, modern irrigation systems, high food safety standards, and advanced farming practices contribute to successful table grape production in Australia and help the industry to become a significant player in global farming of world-class table grapes.

The current growing season started with early challenges due to frequent rainfall and Downy Mildew infection from October 22 to January 23. The season has been cooler with less heat degree days, leading to a harvest delay of up to 3 weeks for most varieties.

However, the domestic market saw strong sales and, overall, Australian export trade as an industry has increased by 12% compared to last year reported by the ATGA on April 9th 20231

Australia, Top 15 Global Producer of Table Grapes.

In terms of exports, the Australian table grape industry has been growing in recent years. The main export markets for Australian table grapes are Asia, particularly China, Hong Kong, and Singapore, along with the United Arab Emirates. China and Hong Kong

are the destinations of 40% of the Australian exports, the other 60% is shared by other Asian markets2. As Rachael McClintock, SNFL’s General Manager in Australia, said in the Global Grape Congress (March 2023): "The quality coming out Australia has certainly improved. Consumers are looking for sweet flavour, crunch and green stem. The rising varieties going to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, or Philippines are IvoryTM, Great GreenTM, MelodyTM, and AllisonTM. And SNFL Group also have some very exciting stuff coming in the pipeline".

STORY

Over the last few years, the table grape industry has been through a period of expansion, and Australiawide new landholders are investing in existing table grape properties.

In this context, Cordoma International, one of SNFL’s Australian licensed growers, has been farming table grapes for three generations for delivering premium table grapes. Adrian Cordoma, Managing Director, shared: “IvoryTM is a beautiful piece of fruit surprisingly with its fresh flavour; our consumers look forward to it every year. For us growers, IvoryTM is a workhorse variety with good yields. We also grow brilliant electric pink red CarlitaTM, so crispy & fresh, and valued by the consumer. As growers, this is an easier variety to produce.”

CarlitaTM had excelled in export demand this year, with timing, color, crunchy texture, and as a grower-friendly variety

in the harvest window of late February. SNFL constantly strengthen relationship with their licensees.

On February 14th of 2023, more than 65 local licensed growers and partners attended SNFL Australian Open Day benefiting from technical advice from the expert team and discovered how to improve the quality and performance of their crops.

During the event, Duncan Macintyre, Chairman of SNFL Group, provided a comprehensive overview of the Australian industry, as well as their efforts to promote premium seedless varieties in Asia, crucial for the upcoming export of Australian table grapes. Lastly, Fresh Produce Group Farm showcased the commercial production of IvoryTM and AllisonTM, and growers could explore and taste some of the varieties of the Navsel collection.

Quality has always been a top priority for SNFL. The dedicated technical and R&D teams in Australia will continue to test and improve the varietal offerings for growers and consumers, leading grape innovation for a healthier future.

Sponsored Content by SNFL Group

Sources:

1. Australian Table Grape Association Inc.

2. Trading Economist: Australia Exports By Country (Consulted on: https://tradingeconomics. com/australia/exports-by-country)

Profile: Rob Kennedy

As a third-generation dried grape grower, Rob Kennedy remembers helping his parents on their family block as a kid.

Since then, much has changed in the industry, and on the Kennedy’s property, including updating and adapting the vineyard to more mechanised and efficient production systems.

Rob is part of Dried Fruits Australia’s Innovation Committee and was the first grower to invest in a new dried grape harvester for this season. He explains why he’s proud to be part of the industry, and what he sees for its future.

How long have you been involved in the dried grape industry?

I am a third generation dried fruit grower. I grew up on a dried fruit and citrus property in Irymple and as a child would help my parents with the various jobs involved in running the property. I particularly remember harvest time including jobs such as carting in fruit to be put on the rack for drying and raking out and boxing fruit.

My wife and I purchased our 18-acre property 18 years ago in 2005.

We both had full-time jobs so we had to be time-efficient with the management of the property. This meant redeveloping the property from its purchase state of flood irrigation and rack drying to a more modern pressurised watering system and trellis drying.

Is the family involved too?

My parents are still involved in the industry after 50 years, having also grown citrus and wine grapes. My eldest son has been helping over the past few years particularly at harvest time with tractor work.

What do you like about the dried grape industry?

Having grown up in regional Victoria,

I really value the rural lifestyle. Dried fruit growers are a supportive bunch and are willing to help out when they can. We share ideas and support each other through challenging times.

The dried fruit industry is an important part of Sunraysia history and I am proud to be able to continue the legacy of the growers who established it so many years ago. How have things changed over the years?

We are much more mechanised now with all areas of production. Trellis drying and mechanical harvesting have increased the efficiency of production and enable us to produce greater volumes of fruit. This is necessary to remain viable in the dried fruit industry. We’re always looking at the most cost efficient and time effective way to produce good quality fruit.

Where do you see the industry going?

Like any farming, growing dried fruit has its challenges. Whilst we can control many things, weather is the ultimate factor determining the quality of the fruit.

Medium scale/family growers are becoming a rare commodity as large corporate farming companies gradually make up the bulk of the fruit produced.

It is vital that these smaller producers are able to continue in the industry to ensure it remains what has kept it unique from its origins.

Being able to access contractors with specialised equipment is important for small to medium sized growers to reduce the costs associated with dried fruit production.

Ultimately the price that processors are able to pay the growers for their fruit will determine the longevity and growth of the industry.

Is there anything new or innovative that you're doing on your block or in your business? We recently removed all of the citrus trees on my parents property and are gradually converting it over to dried fruits.

We are looking at planting some of the earlier ripening varieties such as Selma Pete to try to spread the workload out a little during harvest.v

BOARD BOARD

Notice board

Middle: Dried Fruits Australia hosted a visit by Hort Innovation's general manager industry service and delivery Andrew Francey, general manager trade and biosecurity R&D Dr Mila Bristow and dried grape industry service and delivery manager Dr Nicole Dimos Byrnes. The tour aimed to offer the Hort Innovation team an insight into the industry’s progress and challenges through a tour with a processor and grower.

Right: Dried Fruits Australia CEO Thomas Cheung and field officer Stephen Kelly attended the Victoria Labour Hire Authority information session

During the export season, ATGA has played host to several New Zealand inspectors, as well as a Japanese inspector. The New Zealand inspectors stayed for a few weeks at a time before a new inspector would arrive, and the Japanese inspector came to inspect Australia’s export requirements. Overall, the Japanese inspector was very happy with what he saw while visiting several Mildura exporters.

Mark King (Chair) Producer, Pomona

Warren Lloyd (Deputy Chair) Producer, Irymple

Stephen Bennett Producer, Merbein

Ashley Johnstone Producer, Irymple

Ashley Chabrel Producer, Barmera

Rowena Smart Producer, Red Cliffs

Jeremey Boyd (Chair) Victoria

Rocky Mammone (Deputy Chair) Victoria

Dominic Sergi Victoria

Adrian Cordoma Victoria

Robert Nugan Victoria

Don Albanese Victoria

David Swain Sunbeam Foods

Grant Leyden Sunbeam Foods

Craig Greenwood

Australian Premium Dried Fruits

Michael Scalzo

Australian Premium Dried Fruits

James Moriarty Producer, Duxton Dried Fruits

Joe Garreffa New South Wales

Anthony Cirillo New South Wales

Peter Nuich Western Australia

Zoe Dichiera Queensland

Bill Avery South Australia

Disclaimer: Dried Fruits Australia, the Australian Table Grape Association and Hort Innovation acknowledge contributions made by private enterprise through placement of advertisements in this publication. Acceptance of these contributions does not endorse or imply endorsement of any product or service advertised by contributors and we expressly disclaim all warranties (to the extent permitted by law) about the accuracy, completeness, or currency of information in the Vine. Reliance on any information provided in the Vine is entirely at your own risk. Dried Fruits Australia, the Australian Table Grape Association and Hort Innovation are not responsible for, and will not be liable for, any loss, damage, claim, expense, cost (including legal costs) or other liability arising in any way, including from any person’s negligence or otherwise, or from reliance on information contained in the Vine, or your use or non-use of the material.

Copyright © Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited 2023. Copyright subsists in the Vine. Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (Hort Innovation) owns the copyright, other than as permitted under the Copyright ACT 1968 (Cth). The Vine (in part or as a whole) cannot be reproduced, published, communicated or adapted without the prior written consent of Hort Innovation and both ATGA and DFA.

Left: Coles Supermarket procurement group gained an insight into the Australian dried grape industry during a visit to the growing region.

in Mildura in April.

MAKE