Blueberries are likely to be at their peak this week, with possibly the industry’s highest week of production last week for 2024. Whilst supply is likely to come back in the next 7-10 days, we need to remember that we are moving into school holidays, when demand drops approximately between 7% and 12%, depending on the state. So, whilst we hope to see a price increase in the coming week, we always have to be careful that we don’t push demand down too far with price increases. We will be watching and monitoring this during the week and the weather that is forecasted for end of the week may be the deciding factor as to whether price moves up.
Far North QLD – Whilst the season has a few weeks to go, we saw volume move sideways last week. Quality is still pretty good in this region, but with the weather warming up, it will be harder to maintain the quality that we have seen over the last four months.
Coffs Coast NSW—Growers are currently at peak and will be trying to pick ahead of the weather coming this Thursday in the PM. The rain is expected from Thursday PM to Saturday at this point, but it looks to be moving through by Sunday. Outside of some isolated issues with specific growers, quality continues to be “okay” from the region, and whilst we expect rain, we are not expecting major issues next week with quality.
WA Production – Quality in WA continues to be good. We have perfect Berry harvesting weather in the northern growing regions, and we expect this to continue for the next two weeks. The southern growing regions continue to experience cooler night and day temps, with a little increase anticipated on Thursday. Quality from the Southern growing regions with some strawberry growers sending their early season fruit to Sydney markets to additional price whilst they move through peak production in the coming weeks.
Strawberries (East Coast) – Whilst we passed the peak, we saw a bump in the volume produced nationally last week and a significant reduction in scan revenue week on week, which indicates strawberry demand is fatiguing. We expect this to continue to be a common theme during school holidays before demand returns in mid-October. The weekly volume of Strawberries is not likely to increase again until the VIC/TAS season kicks in, with a lot of farms exiting blocks that have finished due to the lack of flowers coming through.
Raspberries / Blackberries—Slowly but surely, we are seeing Northern NSW creep back in. We have increased from 2 to 4 growers in the MB group who have started their Spring crop (albeit in minimal volumes). Similarly, Blackberries were up vs. the same week last year, but the volumes are insignificant, and across the country, we only saw an increase of 2.5T weekly. This will increase in the coming weeks, with much flowering occurring.
