Australian farmers’ urgent SOS for shoppers: Save our strawberries

Aussie strawberries are facing a new crisis due to Covid lockdowns. Farmers have issued an urgent SOS to shoppers — buy now or they will be destroyed.

Australia’s strawberry farmers have issued an urgent SOS to shoppers — buy our fruit or it will be destroyed.

Growers across Queensland, who are in the peak of their strawberry season have painstakingly watched sales plummet by 50 per cent, as lockdowns have seen some of their fruit sent back to the market.

Queensland is the largest supply area of strawberries in Australia, with more than 100 growers whose product contributes to the more than 41 per cent of all fruit coming from the sunshine state.

Lockdowns across NSW and Victoria have affected sales with less providores buying them to use in restaurants, cafes, juice bars, cake shops or consumers put them in the humble school lunch box.

Within weeks, prices have dramatically dropped on strawberries in Coles, Woolworths and Aldi from $2.50 a punnet to as low 99 cents.

Strawberries have been significantly reduced in price due to lockdowns.

Now, some farmers are starting to spray out their strawberry crops to stop them growing further, as they cannot afford to pick, package and transport them.

Queensland Strawberry Grower’s Association President Adrian Schultz said their fruit is sent all over the country and the situation “could send some farmers to the wall”.

It could also impact future strawberry crops for Christmas, which will come from Victoria and Tasmania if lockdowns continue.

“This has caught us all off guard — we were all focused on getting people to pick the fruit, now the irony is we are considering spraying them out and letting staff go because we don’t have enough work for them,” he said.

Adrian Schultz at the family's strawberry farm. Picture: Supplied

“Strawberries are something we sell by foot traffic, we need people out and about, it’s a very visual fruit and they have not translated well when more food has been sold online.”

Mr Schultz said the cost of producing a punnet of strawberries is $1.20-$1.30 a punnet, and with prices as low as they are, farmers are losing up to 70 cents on every sale.

“With lockdowns I can’t see the situation getting much better. $1.20-$1.30 covers just the bare bones for us, it’s not enough to keep some of us going,” he said.

“They need to be picked every two to three days so we don’t also end up with disease issues with fruit flies.”

Brendan and Ashley Hoyle on their strawberry farm Ashbern Farms at Beerwah. Picture: Lachie Millard

Ashbern Farms owner Brendan Hoyle who grows strawberries in Stanthorpe and Beerwah said they are still deciding if they will spray their crops.

“We watch the market everyday with strawberries, they don’t have a shelf life,” he said.

“If they are ready you have to make a decision to pick it as you can’t leave it for next week.

“Guys out here are doing it tough, they’ve gone through such an effort to grow it, we had a heat spell recently that meant we’ve grown more.”

His neighbour Justin Agostinelli from A&A Juicy Berries in Beerwah said he has already sprayed 25 per cent of his crops two weeks ago.

In his 17th year of farming, he said he has also given his workers a bit more money with assurance they will bounce back.

“This is our last hurrah,” he said.

Beerwah strawberry Farmer Justin Agostinelli from A & A Berries with his 8 year old son Jeremy among some of the 700,000 plants that have been destroyed due to a glut in the market that leaves Justin losing 40 cents per punnet. Picture Lachie Millard

“We have ordered plants for next season and we have borrowed a lot of money to do it — if we don’t have a good year next year it’s see you later.”

Mr Agostinelli said his production costs have gone “through the roof”.

“We used to make money, but the punnets, wages are at an average of $28.86 an hour, and we have got to get something back on what we put out.

“There is a huge demand for export, the Chinese will take 15,000 trays if I can get them on a plane, and we used to supply New Zealand … but we can’t get a plane there now.”

Berries Australia Executive Director Rachel Mackenzie said the simplest thing shoppers can do is buy more punnets.

“Take advantage of the cheaper prices and explore ways of using strawberries, it’s been a challenging year for us,” she said.

Originally published as Australian farmers’ urgent SOS for shoppers: Save our strawberries