Millions of dollars’ worth of strawberries have been dumped or fed to cattle after four days of heavy downpours in south-east Queensland.
Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries at Bellmere near Caboolture shared grim photographs of the sheer scale of their family farms’ losses to rain this week.
Four semi-trailer loads and two skip bins full of waterlogged fruit have been delivered to other farmers to feed livestock, free of charge.
Truckloads of strawberries have gone to waste. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
Co-owner Laura Wells estimated that the equivalent of 216,000 punnets of strawberries have been lost.
The 350-gram punnets would have been sold directly to Coles.
It comes at a time of year when farmers are finally recouping the costs of setting up their production systems for the winter-spring season.
Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries has delivered the fruit waste to feed animals on surrounding farms. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
Ms Wells said she refused to dwell on what must equate to a million dollars in crop damage in one week and was determined to have an “attitude of gratitude”.
“About 98 per cent of our product is gone, but the sun’s shining today,” she said.
“So, that’s what we need to focus on, move forward and wait for the next crop.
“It’s our belief in better days ahead, our dedication to the land, and our commitment to our customers that keep us going, even when the going gets tough.”
Two blocks of land have had to be abandoned for the remaining eight weeks of the season.
Fruit discarded in bins for transport. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
Farmers planned ahead
Few household budgets could afford a hit on this scale, but Ms Wells said she and her business partners had always planned ahead, working on a seven-year average.
She said sending second-grade fruit to market wasn’t an option on such a large scale.
“When we have this kind of catastrophic event — for the best financial outcome and to actually survive it, we don’t have the capacity to sort and grade,” she said.
“That just adds more cost to production and is something that we can’t afford.”
Waterlogged strawberries from Taste ‘n’ See’s Bellmere farm. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
The bulk of Australia’s winter strawberries are produced in south-east Queensland.
The coming weeks will reveal how much the rain has spread plant diseases and damaged flowers.
What will it mean?
Queensland Strawberry Growers’ president Adrian Schultz said that it was too early to determine the extent of the losses or the impact of the unseasonal rain on retail prices.
“What happens is there’s a lot of second-grade fruit that comes onto the market, which is cheaper and in the markets the fruiterers will go for the cheaper product,” Mr Schultz said.
“So, what it can do is actually drag the market down.
“It’s really hard to predict what that’s going to do because obviously if you do have some good quality fruit there won’t be much of it around – it could be quite expensive.”
Adrian Schultz says the full impact will take weeks to estimate. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Produce shops and pick-your-own farms are selling second-grade fruit for jams and smoothies.
“There’ll be a lot of 500g and 1kg second-grade fruit around so great for jam makers, not real good for anyone else,” Mr Schultz said.
“Rally the jam makers, they’re going to have to get real busy I think.”
The fruit losses have been widespread due to heavy rainfall. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
At Noosaville, Gary Norris ‘The Mango Man’ was selling seconds for a small farm, run by a husband and wife.
“I can’t blame anyone for walking off the land,” he said.
“This week’s rain event has cost my strawberry grower over $100,000.
“I listen to people in their million-dollar dollar homes and new cars moan about the cost of fresh produce.
“You know it’s really hard to watch people choose a lifestyle that is clearly unaffordable and then look to save the odd dollar here and there to the detriment of our farmers.”
Garry Norris is selling a farming couple’s strawberries as seconds. (Supplied: Gary Norris, The Mango Man)
Widespread waste
It will not just be strawberries affected by the rain.
Raspberries, blueberries and lettuce are also grown in the Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast regions.
Rural Earthworms owner Rohan Watson has been working with a large packing shed to gather as much waste as possible for his worms to eat.
“Even I can’t handle all of what they waste, it’s pretty huge numbers,” Mr Watson said.
Before the rain, this was the quality of fruit that Taste ‘n’ See was picking. (Supplied: Taste ‘n’ See Strawberries)
Back at Taste ‘n’ See, Laura Wells was trying to see the silver lining from the rain clouds and recover.
“I’m thankful we’ve got very full dams and we’re going to have some really beautiful grass under those tables over the next couple of weeks,” she said.
“We just focus on the fact the sun is shining now and the weather is looking good and we just move forward.”
