Fruit growers plead for help from consumers, prime minister as flooding cleanup begins

Far North Queensland fruit producers facing a heartbreaking clean-up and long recovery from widespread flooding are pleading with Christmas shoppers to support them at the checkout.

And they are appealing to senior politicians, including PM Anthony Albanese, to help them secure enough workers and financial help to get back on their feet.

Some growers report massive losses to Cyclone Jasper’s torrential rain as the tropical fruit season peaks for Christmas, including sweeping damage across mango orchards.

One papaya producer estimates 100,000 kilos of the fruit were lost in days. 

Citrus grower Giovanni Galati watched floodwaters submerge lime trees in his orchards at Biboohra, west of Cairns, on Sunday.

Today, he and his family are working out what it will take to keep the 40-hectare farm in business.

Debris from other properties, including pallets and 44-gallon drums, is strewn throughout their orchards while much of the fruit on their trees has been spoiled or covered in mud.

In their packing shed, floodwaters damaged hydraulic pumps and motors.

“I don’t know how we’re going to get through this one,” Mr Galati said.

“We wait 12 months to grow our fruit and this is all gone.

“Lemons are hitting $120 a carton (and) I can’t pick it.”

Mr Galati says the bill from lost fertiliser alone this week is about $50,000.

The cost of replacing water pumps ripped out when floodwater caused a landslip is likely to be higher.

“It’s huge — there’s no dollar figure at the moment,” Mr Galati said.

Mr Galati urged consumers to keep in mind what farmers are going through as they shop for fruit this summer. 

“If there’s a mark on a lemon because of this water damage, it’s only the skin,” said.

“Inside, it’s all the same.”

Albanese urged to inspect damage

Mr Galati’s wife, Gina, has been receiving calls from family and friends keen to help with the mammoth task but the work to be done means they’ll probably need more hands.

Mrs Galati is urging Mr Albanese to inspect the damage when he visits FNQ this week, as well as local federal MP Bob Katter and Queensland Opposition leader David Crisafulli.

“We don’t know if we’re going to have a season for the next 12 months,” she said.

“We don’t know what’s going to come off these trees.”

Mango and papaya crops wiped out

Nearby mango grower Joe Moro estimates he’s lost half his crop.

Mr Moro, president of FNQ Growers, said producers from Lakeland in the north to Tully in the south were in the path of Cyclone Jasper and the torrential rain it brought.

Extended closures of major transport routes, particularly the Palmerston Highway, have made it hard for growers to get produce to market and more costly to get supplies in.

“From a small business point of view, to get stuff up has been very hard and very slow,” Mr Moro said.

Candy MacLaughlin, general manager of Skybury Farms, said some of her papaya blocks lost 30 per cent of their trees.

“[We’ve lost] 100,000 kilos per week in a market that’s looking forward to Christmas, so there might be a few less papayas on the Christmas menu this year,” she said.

“But we’re hoping if the sunshine stays out, maybe by the middle of next week we’ll be up and [picking] again.”

Dams burst and rivers formed on about five or six places on her farm, she said.

“The first couple of days, the kids were having fun on their boogie boards and then the second and third days were just heartbreaking,” she said.

“When it really faded on Monday, that’s when we understood the significance and the amount of work it will take to get us up and running again.”