News Industry's best fruit on show

Industry’s best fruit on show

A high standard of fruit was submitted to this year’s Dried Fruit Quality Awards, during one of the most challenging seasons faced by the industry.

The winners of Dried Fruits Australia’s annual awards were announced at Mildura Field Days on in May, with awards presented for the best sultanas, raisins, currants, Sunmuscat and Sunglo, as well as an overall winner.

Merbein growers Janice and Simon Chivers took home the top award for the season’s best dried grapes for their sultanas.

Terry Hunyadi from Birdwoodton won best currants, Angie Panagiotaris from Mildura won best raisins, Sam Costantino from Mildura South won best Sunmuscat, and Stephen and Jinky Nicholls from Coomealla won best Sunglo.

DFA chair Mark King said the winners all produced high quality fruit despite the difficulties faced by growers over the season. “2022 will go down as one of the hardest seasons, but due to growers changing to rain tolerant varieties – which now make up more than 50 per cent of dried grapes produced – the industry will come through,” Mark said.

“Many growers are also following DFA’s updated best practice guides, which assist with decision making throughout the key phases of dried grape production.”

Dried grape grower and DFA board member Stephen Bennett, who judged this year’s entries, said the newer sultana-type varieties Sunglo and Sunmuscat held up well this season, while Carina currants were also of a very high quality.

“Overall, the standard of this year’s entries was excellent considering the adverse weather conditions the industry experienced this year,” Stephen said.

“It demonstrates how far the industry has come in developing production systems that can turn out quality product even in difficult seasons.” v 2022 Dried Fruit Quality Awards winners

Best dried grapes of the season, Best sultanas Janice and Simon Chivers, Merbein (Sunbeam Foods)

Best currants Terry Hunyadi, Birdwoodton (Australian Premium Dried Fruits)

Best raisins Angie Panagiotaris, Mildura (Sunbeam Foods)

Best Sunmuscat Sam Costantino, Mildura South (Sunbeam Foods)

Best Sunglo Stephen and Jinky Nicholls, Coomealla (Sunbeam Foods)

Top crop reaps rewards

Allan Long has taken out top honours in the inaugural Dried Fruits Australia Top Crop Awards.

The new awards program aimed to recognise the dried grape industry’s best producing businesses, highlighting those that produce the highest value crop per hectare.

“These awards are primarily driven by yield, but they also take into account the price received, which is based on quality,” industry field officer Stuart Putland explained.

“Congratulations to all of these winners for producing such tremendous yields in what ended up being a very difficult season.”

Allan’s patch of Selma Pete, with a yield of 15.815 tonnes per hectare, was the overall winner.

He attributed his success to a number of factors, including his narrow row trellis system, a keen focus on managing water and fertiliser, and a warm spring the year before. Allan produces his Selma Pete in narrow, 7ft (2.1m) rows, down from the traditional 11ft (3.4m) row, which he said was one of the bigger impacts on the end result.

“The other part of it is getting better and better at managing inputs – water and fertiliser,” he said.

“There has been some guidance coming out of the (DFA) benchmarking study, but generally, I downsized about three years ago, so that gave me an opportunity to concentrate more on this one property. It’s a combination of a lot of things.

“A lot of little things have got to be right to succeed really well.”

Allan said while he had been achieving good yields for some time, he experienced a jump this season.

“I’m hoping it’s an indication of what the normal yield might be in the future,” he said.

Stuart said an honourable mention must go to Ashley Johnstone for his Selma Pete yield of 11.64 tonnes per hectare. “Narrower row spacing gave our winner the edge, notwithstanding the fact that Ashley’s vines produced a higher yield per vine or kilometre of cordon,” he said.

“It will be interesting to keep an eye on results of this competition in future years because there may be something in this closer row spacing if this is an ongoing trend.”

The overall Top Crop Award winner received a $500 Mildura City Heart gift card, while category winners each received a $100 Mildura City Heart gift card. v

Top Crop Awards winners

Overall and Selma Pete: Allan Long 15.815 t/ha

Sunmuscat: David Lyons 12.231 t/ha

Currants: Daryn Gardner 13.644 t/ha

Sunglo: John Hunt 10.796 t/ha