Local farmers say there will be a short supply of lychees this year

The poor weather has affected the Far North’s lychee produce this year with the impact being felt beyond the farms.

LYCHEES are expected to be in short supply this year due to poor weather conditions.

Chewko Road farmer Ross Menniti said his operation would only produce 20 per cent of what it usually did in a normal year.

“This season, basically we didn’t have the right weather conditions, therefore they didn’t really flower and the ones that did were all over the place,” Mr Menniti said.

The weather currently still isn’t suited for lychees, so Mr Menniti said there still might be a few drops to come.

He said there had been a lot more rain than usual in the last few months, which was not conducive to a successful harvest of the fruit.

Usually the early varieties would be showing signs of colour in October but this is unlikely to occur this season.

Lychees from Tablelands to Tabletops last year, there are hopes some will produce like this. Picture: Supplied

“Everyone is asking me for lychees already. We had a cold snap Thursday morning, the trees don’t like that,” Mr Menniti said.

Usually they distribute to Brisbane and local markets in Cairns and the Tablelands, but Mr Menniti said he did not think he would be able to do the rounds this year.

Mr Menniti said the short supply had affected that number of people he was able to employ on his farm, with the limited work restricting staff numbers to 15.

With short supply there is also expected to be an increase in price this year as winter has been long and late.

Founder, CEO and director of Tablelands to Tabletops Angela Nason said she expected to be selling lychees for a high price this year.

“The price is just going to be ridiculous. We wait all year, we hang out for it in the Far North. I reckon it is going be a bidding war. We expect high prices and very short supply,” Ms Nason said.

After a very long winter snap, Ms Nason said she couldn’t recall conditions this bad in the Far North.

“The lychees are falling off the trees. They are just going brown and shrivelling off,” Ms Nason said.

Lychees are usually at their peak in December.

Originally published as Local farmers say there will be a short supply of lychees this year