The Low Chill Association recently held its Annual General Meeting . One change you will notice straight away – I am not Mark Napper ! The industry would like to thank Mark for the efforts he has put in over the last few years as President of the Association and acknowledge his contribution to the industry as a whole .
Low Chill Australia President ' s Report
Change at the top
ROD DALTON is President of Low Chill Australia E : president @ lowchillaustralia . com . au
The Low Chill Association recently held its Annual General Meeting . One change you will notice straight away – I am not Mark Napper ! The industry would like to thank Mark for the efforts he has put in over the last few years as President of the Association and acknowledge his contribution to the industry as a whole .
The remaining executive positions are unchanged and I am looking forward to working with all of you over the next year or more .
Here in southern Queensland we have well and truly finished picking . In fact , I finished by the end of November . From my point of view , it was a good season . There are a few different reasons for this .
Window of opportunity
The retailers stopped selling imported stonefruit as our season commenced , leaving us a real window into the market . Buyers were willing to pay a premium for Australiangrown fruit , with the result prices were high and stayed there . With domestic prices so good , there seems little reason to export at that time of the season .
There had been some concern about Chinese nectarines entering the market just as we started picking . However , this proved a non-event , with no real impact on sales . Quality issues , as well as consumer and retailer resistance to Chinese-grown fruit , seem to have halted imports just as they started .
Then , cool wet weather in the south delayed harvesting in Swan Hill by around two weeks . The upshot was that we could finish harvesting before southern fruit came onto the market in volume ; a perfect dismount to the season .
It ’ s true that some of the early season quality was a bit average . Cloudy weather meant fruit failed to develop the sugar levels that we would have preferred , although size was
10 Australian Stonefruit Grower | December 2016 summerfruit . com . au