News MDBA in Mildura

MDBA

WELCOMES NEW MILDURA TEAM

Meeting growers and exploring more of the Mildura region will be top of the agenda for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s newest staff members as COVID-19 restrictions begin to ease.

Mildura is home to one of the new regional offices the MDBA is currently establishing throughout the basin, along with Griffith and Murray Bridge. The MDBA already has more than 70 staff members working in regional locations and, by the middle of next year, will have more than 100 staff outside of Canberra.

MDBA Mildura regional manager Di Mead said the local team now covered a range of the MDBA’s operating areas, from river management, modelling, salinity and groundwater to procurement, media and compliance.

“We are over halfway to filling the Mildura office, with 14 staff onboard,” Di said. “Many are locals, and some, such as Owen Russell, Tyson Milne and Andrew Kremor, will already be well known to growers.”

Di is among some new faces to the region, having been with the MDBA for more than 10 years and relocating from Albury.

“Tyson and I were pleased to attend the irrigation seminar that Dried Fruits Australia presented online in July and, as COVID conditions ease, we will get out to more industry events to hear what issues are of concern to growers and assist where we can,” she said.

“We also have a regional engagement officer, Richard Unsworth, who is based in Menindee and serves the Lower Darling region. Our area extends from the Lower Darling through Sunraysia, the Mallee and Wimmera, and once restrictions allow we will be active throughout the region.”

While COVID has delayed plans to formally open the Mildura office in Deakin Avenue and required the team to work remotely, MDBA staff are still available and happy to answer questions or address concerns. v

Growers can get in touch with Di on (02) 6279 0129 or Tyson on (02) 6279 0645 or at tyson.milne@mdba.gov.au.

Chemical knowledge critical

AUSTRALIAN PREMIUM DRIED FRUITS

An important and regular conversation we have with our growers is regarding changes to approved chemicals for dried grape production.

It is not always the most interesting of topics, but it is one of the more critical conversations when it comes to growing a product that attracts the best premiums on offer.

In today’s world, where food safety is paramount to achieving a premium, every contributor to the supply chain must have a strong understanding of the chemical regulations for their product. The grower – as the first and main contributor to the product – has the highest responsibility of all. Growers must regularly spend time educating themselves on chemical guidelines to avoid any catastrophic outcomes with fruit not meeting maximum residue limits (MRLs).

As Europe is consistently our industry’s largest and highest price market, all industry stakeholders (including APDF) use the EU standard as the guidelines for MRLs. These guidelines are provided each season in the Dried Fruits Australia spray diary, which we (as active DFA and industry members)

contribute to and fully support.

It is important for growers to understand that the chemical guidelines are not set by industry or processors, but by the market of the most important customer. Our aim, as growers and processors alike, should always be to produce product of the highest standard, which can, most importantly, also achieve the highest return.

While key chemicals have been removed for human safety and environmental reasons, it has made dried grape farming more challenging. Some of the best practices we see to combat the removal of certain chemicals are from growers who concentrate heavily on vine and soil health. A very healthy plant and soil create an excellent immune system to combat or minimise many of the pest and disease issues we can experience in the vineyard. Some chemicals will always assist in conventional high yield production, but the science of plant and soil health is a great topic to invest time in and we encourage growers to keep looking at new developments and techniques.

At our Wargan Road factory, we are hoping to pack out the balance of the challenging 2020-season fruit by

Christmas this year. Unfortunately, our yield losses have been much higher than expected, which is due to the overall fruit quality received. The wet weather during the drying season created lower grades and much more fruit of high moisture requiring dehydration. The 2020 season fruit has deteriorated more quickly compared to the previous two seasons, so this has seen 2–3 per cent higher losses overall. Damaged berries, adhering leaf, embedded stalk and blobs are also increased in years of wet weather during harvest. We know it is very costly for growers when weather is not favourable, but it continues to flow onto the processor in extra losses during production.

Fingers crossed for a much better season ahead. The vines around the district look to have responded well to the good early conditions in spring, with signs of Thompson sultanas being quite fruitful. Good luck to everyone for a successful growing season and a return to fantastic quality for the 2021 harvest.

Hopefully we see further lifting of COVID-19 restrictions so we can hold our annual pre-harvest grower meeting, where we will supply further updates on our business along with a social chat over dinner and a cold drink.

APDF is still committed to growing our supply, so any existing or new growers are encouraged to contact Larry to discuss partnering with us into the future.v

Grower enquiries: Grower liaison officer Larry Dichiera | 0408 054 517 larry@apdf.com.au

Pictured: APDF processing staff hard at work.

Season of promise

SUNBEAM FOODS & ANGAS PARK

After the significant second spike of COVID-19 in Victoria, it is nice to be getting back somewhere closer to normal life.

While travel restrictions continue, the optimism of a lessening in our COVID-19 controlled environment has the dark clouds lifting from everyone. The emergence of a new crop also brings promise and enthusiasm to our vine fruit, prune and tree fruit growers.

Dried vine fruit

In reviewing the 2020 season, one of the most pleasing aspects of the challenging season was the very low level of deductions that were applied to the fruit. Excluding moisture, the levels of stalk and stem, waste, mould and damaged fruit were minimal. This is a result of growers acting quickly and responding to the weather conditions appropriately. This is a real strength of our grower base and shows that the correct management techniques are being applied. The 2020 export marketing campaign was a case of trying to stretch the available fruit as far as possible. As the crop was down and the colour was more to the brown grades, this left a shortage of product to fulfil the increasing export demand. Sunbeam Foods international trading manager Thomas Cheung said demand from emerging markets was still growing, particularly for Sunmuscat in China. Mr Cheung said the reputation of “Australian Golden Sultanas” as premium quality fruit was rapidly expanding in the Chinese market. “COVID-19 has not affected demand, but it has so far affected our logistics, causing extended transit periods and shipment delays,” he said. “Our competition is mainly coming from South Africa. Orange River production has increased approximately 62 per cent from last season and its significant growth is becoming our main threat in the forthcoming years – to our European market in particular.”

2021 crop

There has been a very even budburst this year and bunch numbers are up on 2020. This is a good start. Water allocations and pricing are in a better position and the weather has been favourable so far with some winter and spring rainfall. The Dried Fruits Australia spray diaries have been distributed and it is vital that growers adhere to the approved list of chemicals. The chemical-use landscape continues to change and, even since the printing of this season’s diary, another chemical has been removed due to restrictions in the European Union. Chlorothalonil, which was used for the control of black spot, Botrytis bunch rot and downy mildew, has been removed from the approved chemicals list. Growers should be aware of this and adjust their spray programs accordingly.

Prunes

Prune grading for 2020 is nearly complete at both Yenda Producers and Angas Park Loxton. Just under 70 per cent of the fruit is grading in the pittable range and, while there is surface sugar on some fruit, generally the size and quality has been good. Australian Prune Industry Association (APIA) promotions coordinator Jane McCorkell recently tendered her resignation from the position. Jane has done an outstanding job with the media exposure, organising food fairs, and building a network through many of the food technology channels. We wholeheartedly thank Jane and wish her all the best for her future endeavours.

APIA has appointed Robyn Turner to the position and we look forward to working closely with her to promote Australian prunes.

Dried tree fruit

There has been a good budburst on most varieties of apricots and this is a good start to the season. The apricot processing equipment at Loxton is undertaking a major refurbishment that will improve the speed and efficiency significantly. To maximise the benefits of this work, we are looking to take more fresh apricots into our drying facility this season. A new pricing schedule is in place that reflects better returns for better dry ratio fruit. If you would like to explore this arrangement, please contact Luke Fitzsimmons (details below).v

Enquiries: 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 fruit operations manager (Loxton) Luke Fitzsimmons | 0431 894 515

Project sultana

MURRAY RIVER ORGANICS

Murray River Organics is reviving the iconic pantry staple, establishing their own-grown organic sultanas in new product categories to sustain demand for their hero harvest.

The humble sultana has historic origins in Australia, with the very first vines planted in 1890. Who would have known back then that future harvests of the small-but-sweet dried fruit would put Australia on the world stage as premium sultana growers and turn sultanas into Aussie pantry royalty?

The mid to late ‘90s were certainly the golden era for sultanas in Australia (cue “ants on a log” throwback), with

many a lunchbox made complete with a compact cardboard box of the dried fruit snack. Back then, a strong Australian grower base (including our own farms in Sunraysia) sustained this consumer demand, with the sultana industry producing its highest yields during the period.

Though, it’s not been all happy harvests and gleeful growing. In recent years, difficult weather events, including persistent hot summers, along with high-water prices, have chased out long-serving smaller growers, placing increased demand on larger suppliers, with sell-prices remaining relatively flat despite rising operating costs.

They are challenges that we at Murray River Organics know all too well and which have led us to pivot on our sell-where-the-demand-is strategy. Instead, we are determined to make our hero harvest work harder, creating new opportunities for sultanas across multiple consumer categories while growing awareness and demand through our targeted communications strategy.

This innovative approach combined with a dogged work ethic has seemingly worked, with our Murray River Organics consumer brand launching in January 2020 and already finding its place on the shelves of Australia’s largest supermarkets, including Woolworths, Coles and IGA. Our premium organic sultanas now hold their own not only in the dried fruit aisle, but also in the breakfast, health foods and confectionery aisles as well.

Consumers are now more aware than ever of their health and wellness and are actively seeking better-for-you products. We aim to provide the answer to their search with innovative, high quality products made available in convenient locations.

It’s all part of our overarching mission – to make tasty, clean and nutritious food accessible to all – and as Australia’s largest producer of organic dried vine fruit, we’re in a prime position to use our scale for good and achieve just that.

You can view the MRO range at murrayriverorganics.com.au/retail. v Interested in going organic? Enquiries: Valentina Tripp | 0414 550 337 vtripp@murrayriverorganics.com.au