Fruit Crops

Residents in a swathe of suburbs in Perth's south are urged to remove all fruit and fruiting vegetables from their gardens following the detection of the Queensland fruit fly, which poses a significant threat to the state's horticultural industries.

The way big stores deal with farmers and how they make money from fresh food specials have been a focus in the first two weeks of the ACCC's supermarket inquiry.

Chiltern cherry growers Bill and Lois Hotson say customers are already placing end-of-year orders for the fruit, which is normally harvested from Melbourne Cup Day through to Christmas, and this season looks like a bumper crop.

Farmers in Australia's largest wine grape growing region are still counting losses from severe frost last month and there is no help on the horizon.

Growing cherries is "high risk, high reward" but farmers now have access to new varieties better suited to difficult climate conditions.

Producers in some of Australia's largest and most iconic wine regions say they have suffered crop losses due to frost, which is expected to continue in the coming week.

Mango season in the Northern Territory is starting to heat up, with 24,000 trays sent to markets last week and future yields looking good.

Prices for some vegetables are falling because of oversupply, but there are concerns for the livestock industry as Queensland's soaring temperatures dry pasture and feed.

A plant bearing a supersized new avocado variety is tipped to be a sell-out, ahead of its first release to retail nurseries and home gardeners.

A food recycling charity has taken blueberries destined for the tip to create a zero-alcohol wine alternative, which is now being served in restaurants and ultimately helping feed more people. 

Skip bins full of strawberries have been dumped or fed to cattle after four days of heavy downpours in south-east Queensland.

Pick-your-own farms are becoming increasingly popular with both Australian growers and customers, allowing farmers to be price makers instead of price takers.

A rosy-skinned, red-fleshed apple named Kissabel is one of several new styles set to tempt fruit lovers back to eating an apple a day to revive the fruit's market share.

Shoppers wondering why capsicums, especially red ones, are so expensive can blame the weather at one end of the country and a single tiny fly at the other. 

West Australian wine growers from the Swan Valley to Denmark in the Great Southern have recorded one of their most dismal harvests in years following high summer temperatures.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts below average autumn rainfall across the South West, with drought conditions across parts of the North West also set to stretch on.

Ex-Tropical Cyclone Lincoln crossed the WA coast at the town of Carnarvon, delivering rain to a region that's dealt with successive heatwaves, but also damaging crops.

Queensland growers are on high alert this week with devastating floods increasing the possible spread of Panama TR4 fungal disease — the greatest threat to banana production worldwide.

The Murray Darling Basin back in the spotlight as the federal government rushes to extend the 2024 deadline to return more water to rivers and restart water buybacks.

The Darwin region is forecast to produce about 2.3 million trays of mangoes this year, according to the peak industry body, down from about 2.6 million last season.