Stone fruit growers say prices must rise as they battle to save crops

For weeks, stone fruit growers in Victoria have been pumping water out of their orchards. They say prices will have to rise to reflect their increased costs.

Dean Morpeth (picture back right, with his family), says stone fruit prices will have to rise this year or growers will lose money. Photo: Supplied

For weeks, stone fruit growers in Victoria have been pumping water out of their orchards, battling to save their trees in the wettest growing conditions they have ever experienced.

Every time it rains, the cost of producing this year’s crop goes up, and growers say prices at the supermarket checkout will have to rise or they will be in trouble.

The northern Victorian region of Swan Hill, together with the Goulburn Valley — an area that includes Cobram on the Murray River and Shepparton on the Goulburn River — make up about 85 per cent of Australia’s stone fruit production.

Both areas have been hit with extremely wet conditions just weeks from harvest.

Swan Hill stone fruit grower and Stone fruit Australia director Dean Morpeth said growers in northern Victoria were exhausted.

“Most of the orchards have been trying to pump water away for a few weeks now. Growers had gotten most of (the water) away over the weekend, but after Sunday and Monday’s rain we’re back to square one if not a bit worse. There’s just nowhere for the water to go now,” he said.

Dean Morpeth grows stone fruit in Swan Hill with his family. Photo: Supplied

“We’ve never seen anything like this, where it has been constant rain every week.”

Pumping water and managing the pests and disease flourishing in the wet conditions was expensive, and if growers didn’t receive an extra 50 cents per kilo for their fruit this year “we’ll be losing money”, he said.

“That’s a minimum just to keep our heads above water.”

“We’re asking retailers and independents to be fair. We’re realistic that consumers can only afford to pay so much for produce and for groceries and everyone’s cost of living is increasing. But there is a minimum price there that we think is fair to make sure that we’re surviving these tough times as well.”

“We cannot store stone fruit, (so) we are in a position of having to sell. One decision to drop prices to reflect previous years prices or programs can derail the whole season,” he said.

Mr Morpeth asked customers for “understanding and acceptance” about higher prices and lower fruit quality this season.

“It won’t be the standard year that they would be used to... but the farmers will still need their support,” he said.

Northern Victoria was expected to experience its wettest October on record this month, with more rain forecast for the end of the week.

Stone fruit won’t be the quality customers are used to this year due to wet conditions.

Cobram grower and president of the Cobram and District Fruit Growers Association Tony Siciliano said he had his “fingers crossed” prices paid to growers would reflect costs.

“Every time there’s a rain event you need to go and put a fungicide on. We don’t want the fruit to go rotten and we need to keep the trees alive. That costs money.

“Fingers crossed, Gods upstairs will provide something,” he said.

Cherries were particularly hard hit by the weather, he said.

“We’re probably a couple of weeks away from starting (harvest) and you can start to see some mark some splitting in those few cherries that are on the trees. They’re no good to anyone, they just go straight to the rubbish bin or they’re left on the tree.”

The Weekly Times contacted Coles and Woolworths for comment.

A Woolworths spokeswoman said the company was “engaging in collaborative conversations about price with our regular suppliers, taking into account cost pressures driven by inflation and seasonal conditions”.

“We’re in close contact with our stonefruit suppliers to understand how their businesses may have been affected by the recent floods and we will continue to work with them to manage industry-wide challenges.”

Coles did not respond by deadline.