Australia
Country Member Summary
Adapted from the report by the Australian Blueberry Growers Association
Whilst the Australian blueberry industry continues to deliver high quality blueberries 52 weeks a year to the
domestic market, 2021 was not without its challenges. The impact of the February and March 2021 storms and
floods had a significant impact on the growers on the NSW North Coast. This region produces more than 75% of
Australian blueberries so the impact of these weather events had industry-wide significance and saw an
overall reduction in production of 10% across the industry.
Covid lockdowns and changed shopping habits also saw a reduction in consumption of blueberries as more
shoppers moved to online shopping. Covid also affected supply chains in terms of distribution of produce,
access to workers and increased the cost of inputs such as fertiliser. The Australian Blueberry Growers
Association is increasing its domestic marketing campaign for the 2022 season and there is considerable
opportunity to increase market penetration compared with other berry growing countries.
Whilst the year was not easy, there is a general sense of optimism as the industry is exploring new options
in phytosanitary markets. Utilising voluntary grower levies with matched funding from the Australian
government, the industry now has a professional export capability. Part of that export push is to educate
growers on what the export opportunities are and ensure that when markets are opened, the industry is primed
to provide the best quality fruit for these new markets.
Whilst Australia is certainly a land of climatic extremes this provides opportunities for the industry in
terms of production windows and has been the driver for enormous investment in breeding programs. Australia
will never be a low-cost production country, but it is increasingly positioning itself as the producer of a
genuinely premium blueberry that can take advantage of a range of production windows to tap into export
opportunities as well as a savvy health conscious domestic customer base.
Australia
Report Team Narrative
As a “natural laboratory” for blueberry development, the Australian industry may not have sufficient volume
to make a real dent in the global market but it certainly punches above its weight in its contribution to
the varietal transformation at play worldwide in warmer climates. Australia is home to three of the leading
low chill blueberry breeding companies that have helped fuel the exponential rise in low- and no-chill
genetics around the world. Meanwhile there is also an emerging fourth player currently in the early stages
of its commercialization journey, established by a former co-owner of one of the incumbents.
A wide variety of micro-climates allowed Australia to become the first blueberry-growing nation to achieve
52-week supply, with aggressive planting in the Coffs Harbour region of New South Wales responsible for much
of the growth in recent years and consumer demand that has responded in kind. But as noted in the Australian
Blueberry Growers Association (ABGA) country member summary, national production is heavily concentrated in
that area which suffered from storms and floods in early 2021, leading to a decline in volume.
The Northern New South Wales region is included within a band of territory stretching from Southeast
Queensland to south of Sydney that was impacted by unprecedented, relentless rainfall and flooding over
several weeks starting in late February 2022, followed by continuous rainfall throughout much of the first
half of the year. Few farms in the Coffs Harbour region were directly impacted by flooding, but Lismore –
some two hours’ drive north – endured a catastrophic inundation, with a major packhouse in the area
reportedly affected. It is yet to be seen what the full consequences will be for the 2022 crop, but it will
likely have some post-harvest implications due to the ongoing moisture. There is little data available to
indicate what proportion of farms may have been spared from the constant rains given a national protected
crop mapping exercise being conducted by Protected Cropping Australia is still underway at the time of
writing.
Those growers who were able to achieve volumes were able to sell at high prices in the first half of 2022,
although as referenced in the New Zealand section, Australia’s island neighbors were able to capitalize on
the shortage. In calendar 2021, Australia’s exports rose by 37% in volume, buoyed by Hong Kong which
accounted for two-thirds of overseas sales, followed by Singapore and Indonesia. The average pricing for
Australian blueberries abroad was almost $5 per kilo higher in 2021 at $22/kg.
The events of the past two years underscore the diversification imperative for the Australian blueberry
industry, which may be spread far and wide but only in small quantities relative to NSW. The industry
extends as far north as the mango- and banana-producing region of the Atherton Tablelands of tropical Far
North Queensland, where a leading Australian Stock Exchange-listed fruit company has been producing
incipient volumes of a purpose-bred tropical blueberry variety it intends to roll out internationally. Also
in Queensland there is a large operation in Mundubbera, a region better known for its citrus and table
grapes, as well as smaller farms in the macadamia-growing area of Bundaberg.
Where the Australian production mix is really lacking is in its cooler climates to service the market from
December to May - a timeframe when the industry has historically struggled with sub-optimal quality.
December and January are two months when almost all the domestic supply is from public varieties, even
though the industry’s share of proprietary varieties is expected to continue to increase. Some domestic and
international breeders are attempting to bridge this gap through the development or introduction of hybrid
mid-chill blueberries in the southern states of Victoria and Tasmania, although this is a process that could
take several years.
Another fairly untapped growing source for the country is Western Australia (WA), which hosts a dry climate
with fewer pest pressures than in the country’s concentrated east, with a wide variety of microclimates. It
is here that one of Australia’s and the world’s leading blueberry breeders is based, and is developing new
farms with next-generation genetics between Gingin north of Perth and Manjimup in the state’s Southern
Forests region. In very small volumes, 12-month blueberry supply has been achieved in WA alone, but new
projects are focused on closing the supply shortage between March and June. Varieties have been bred
specifically with machine harvesting for fresh in mind in an attempt to circumvent Australia’s labor
shortage issue, which has been felt acutely in WA where for most of the pandemic the state government had in
place a hard border with the rest of the nation. Indeed, Australia was relatively closed off to the world
for a long time during the covid pandemic, and there is a consensus that the country’s leading breeders and
scientists have used that time of international travel restrictions to sharpen their focus on varietal
development. Blueberry growers worldwide will no doubt be waiting to see what the fruit of those efforts
will bring.
