Harvest underway at Nine Mile blueberry farm

The workforce at Costa Group’s Nine Mile blueberry farm is swelling, with predictions the numbers will double, as the annual harvest gathers steam.

Nine Mile Farm Quality Control Supervisor Sarah McKay during the blueberry harvest at Sulphur Creek. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

THE BLUEBERY harvest is underway at Costa Group’s Nine Mile farm with picker numbers expected to double over the next few weeks.

Picking started at the end of December and will continue through to early March.

There are currently 250 pickers on site. That number should swell to 500 soon as more fruit ripens.

The workforce is made up of locals, backpackers, Pacific Islanders brought in under Australia’s Seasonal Worker program and university students such as Sarah McKay.

Ms McKay is a third-year agricultural science student at the University of Tasmania and is working at the berry farm over the summer as a quality control supervisor.

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The 20-year-old is spending her second summer break in the role and is loving it.

“It is great hands-on experience and it is good to have the Costa name on your resume. I love being outdoors so this is a great way to earn some money over the summer,” she said.

The farm now has 70ha under fruit including 22ha of new plantings which are just coming into production.

The berries go into the domestic market, sold under the Driscoll brand, and Costa Regional Manager Cameron Folder said summer demand for the fruit was strong and growing.

Costa Group also grows raspberries at Wesley Vale and strawberries and blackberries at other sites in Tasmania’s north.

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The air was thick with smoke on the day Tasmanian Country visited the farm, near Penguin, but Mr Folder said the smoke – coming in from Victoria – would not impact the quality of the fruit here.

“It is also too early to know what damage the fires on the mainland may have caused to other berry crops and how that might impact demand from us,” Mr Folder said.

In NSW, Vitalharvest Freehold Trust, which leases assets exclusively to Costa Group Holdings, has been impacted by bushfire at Tumbarumba berry farm losing a packing shed and vehicles to flames. Access to that property remains limited.

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Originally published as Harvest underway at Nine Mile blueberry farm