Blueberries—As noted in the headline, Last week, the industry saw the lowest volume of Blueberries in the last 104 weeks, which we saw approximately double, at the same time in 2023. Early season Opi (1111’s) from the Coffs Coast is still very slow, with very light production across the whole region. Depending on the weather, we are still several weeks away from this improving. As per last week, due to the low volumes, some higher sales are occurring on the market floor, but buyers are being very selective about what they are buying. Customers who are buying $12.00 punnets in stores want to ensure what they buy has good flavour and quality. As noted last week, if the quality of fruit being produced meets this spec, we will look to include some of these sales in the mix.
Far North QLD—The weather in FNQ is looking fantastic over the next two weeks, and this should continue to increase the volume from this region. Mid 20’s for maximum temps with low teens for minimums, and no rain forecasted (at this point).
Strawberries—We are starting to see some retailer activity in Sydney this week at a lower price point, so we can assume that the volume is slowly coming on. We can expect the markets to have their first initial price drop in the coming week; however, with the current retail prices, it will take 3-4 days for the higher price stock to sell through before moving down to the lower prices. (so we don’t expect any changes until the 11th of June in major retail). Weather conditions are good this week and next, so it’s likely that we will see volume moving up over the next week.
In Southwest WA, the weather is mostly good throughout the week, with max temperatures between 18-20 degrees and minimums between 10-14 degrees. Wanneroo fruit continues to increase in Volume in WA. But we are really seeing a mixed bag when it comes to size and quality (not too dissimilar to the East Coast early-season fruit).
Raspberries—Northern NSW / Southeast QLD had an unusual week of volume where we saw production bounce; however, we expect it to settle down again this week with some growers at the end of their harvest. We have seen demand from retail soften slightly, with poor weather across the weekend impacting pull-through. Quality across the board continues to be pretty good. We did see some retail movement in VIC last week. However, it seems like there is a reasonable balance between price and demand, so we are not expecting any movement in the short term for QLD and NSW.
Blackberries—Production moved sideways week on week and we are not expecting significant movement on Blackberries in the coming weeks.
