Cover story Champions in the field

Champions in the field

Andrew and Sharee Hobbs have been in the dried grape industry for just five years, but it’s their four decades in other horticulture industries that gave them the experience to excel in producing a high-quality product.

The Cardross couple’s Bruce’s Sport was crowned Best Dried Fruit when Dried Fruits Australia (DFA) announced its Quality Award winners for the 2021 season at the 70th Mildura Field Days in May.

In announcing the category and overall winners, DFA board deputy chair Warren Lloyd said under the right conditions, Australia produced the best dried grapes in the world.

Warren said 2021 was a good year, with great drying conditions.

“Great conditions produce great quality fruit,” he said.

“So all these people who have won the awards this year, you have produced the best quality fruit in the category in the world – you’re a world champion.

“It’s a mighty fine achievement to produce the best quality fruit in the industry.

“It’s great to acknowledge the work of our growers and the people who have won should feel justifiably proud of what they’ve achieved.”

Experience offers path to success

Andrew said the award win came as a pleasant surprise for the couple, who had not long been in the dried grape industry.

“We always try to achieve above average, and certainly always hope for higher,” he said. “The fruit variety helped – Bruce’s Sport is a pretty light-coloured fruit.”

While Andrew said he and Sharee couldn’t take all the glory – after receiving some advice on harvest timing – the win consolidated their four decades in horticulture, and the work, dedication and continued interest in all horticulture crops.

“Our careers cover multiple crops from citrus, wine grape, nuts and vegetable growing both in corporate and owner operator/family farming roles in SA, Victoria and NSW,” he said.

Surprise dried fruit growers

Despite all of their experience in horticulture, Andrew and Sharee had never intended to become dried grape growers when they bought their property in 2016.

With his most recent experience in the nut industry, Andrew said the couple had planned to slowly push out the existing dried grape plantings and replace them with pistachios.

Those plans changed when Andrew started his consultancy business and ran the numbers on the existing dried grape crop.

“The traditional lead time on pistachios is seven to 10 years,” Andrew said.

“We thought ‘why would we push it out if it’s actually making money and paying the bills here?’.

“The numbers on it surprised us. Even though there’s more labour involved, the net return per hectare is better than wine grapes.”

In 2019, the couple bought another dried grape property nearby, bringing their dried grape production area to 10 hectares, and about three hectares of a completely different crop – jujubes.

Diversity in crops

Variety on the Hobbs’ property offers a certain level of stability.

In dried fruit, they produce sultana, Sunmuscat, Selma Pete, Diamond Muscat and their award-winning Bruce’s Sport, and are keen to add another early variety to minimise harvesting clashes with their other crop, jujubes.

Jujubes are a plum-like stone fruit originating in Asia, which the Hobbs’ sell to the Sydney wholesale market.

Andrew said the crop was high-value, but because it’s relatively new to Australia, the dried fruit offered stability and a level of certainty to the properties.

He and Sharee are currently researching and weighing up options for earlier dried grape varieties so they face less pressure come harvest.

First-year wipeout

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Andrew and Sharee.

Three months after they bought their Cardross property in 2016, any prospects of a successful first season were wiped out by hail.

“We still harvested some fruit, but we almost didn’t qualify to be a primary producer that year – we were a hobby farm, basically, and that was not the intention,” Andrew said.

“We still weren’t as bad as the growers up the road who lost everything, but it’s hard when you shift here, buy the farm, and start up a new business all in the same period, with next to no income coming in.”

After a first year that shook their confidence, Andrew and Sharee picked up the pieces and pushed ahead, knowing that the property could produce quality fruit and offer solid returns. Industry rises together Andrew admits he and Sharee couldn’t have done it alone.

The pair have leant on the knowledge of neighbours and others in the industry generous enough to offer advice.

With a background in wine grapes, the Hobbs’ didn’t need to know how to grow grapes, but rather relied on advice about the drying process, timing and varieties.

“You’ve usually got to rely on someone else in your business, but if it’s just the two of us, it’s the people around you that make things work,” Andrew said.

“DFA has a lot of information, there’s a lot of information on varieties, and you can talk to your neighbours. “That communication and bit of camaraderie, that openness from within the industry, will help drive the industry forward.”

Andrew acknowledged DFA field officer Stuart Putland’s industry projects and field days as a resource for growers and a way to advance the whole industry. v

And the winners are …

The full list of DFA Quality Award winners were:

Best Dried Fruit: (Bruce’s Sport) Andrew and Sharee Hobbs, Cardross

Best Sultana: Frank and Fortunata Panetta, Mildura

Best Sunmuscat and Best Raisin: Stephen and Jinky Nicholls, Dareton

Best Sunglo: Paul and Lea Andronescu, Sunnycliffs

Best Carina Currants: Robert and Elizabeth Kennedy, Irymple

Previous page, left and bottom: Andrew Hobbs, along with his wife Sharee took home the Best Dried Fruit category of the 2021 DFA Quality Awards.

Top right: Dried Fruits Australia 2021 Quality Award winners Robert Kennedy, Frank and Fortunata Panetta, Stephen Nicholls and Paul Andronescu with DFA board deputy chair Warren Lloyd.