One table grape farmer who has decided to tough it out in South West Queensland’s St George region is convinced that the yields from another part of Queensland, Emerald, which have increased as much as ten fold in recent years are down to favourable weather patterns. “A little over three years ago it started to happen. Emerald and Mundubbera, where they traditionally get higher prices because they are the first to market, are three or four weeks ahead of us now. They overlap us by a long way,” Says St George farmer George Faessler.
When the oversupply from another part of Queensland is coupled with ‘ever increasing’ imports of table grapes from the US market while local ones are in season, most farmers in the area have decided to shut that part of their business, with at least 4 ceasing operations in the past 4 years,. “It’s over production and depressed prices,” Says Mr Faessler.
“To let the US grapes in in direct competition with us, that’s just terrible. A lot of other countries protect their own growers. How about compensating our farmers because they are disadvantaged by the mining industry and the imbalance of what China buys from us and what we buy from China?” A special tax is needed to solve the problem and correct the imbalance described, according to Mr Faessler. “Who is disadvantaged by this? Our own producers.”
Mr Faessler says that spring rains are a big determining factor in how well grapes grow the following season, as they dictate how well early forming microscopic bunches will grow, and the St George area has suffered for that in recent seasons. “If there are frequent spring rains that is detrimental to the microscopic bunches,” he says. “That could be related to the issues we’re having, but if we get back to a normal season again with the weather it could rectify itself. That’s what I’m counting on,” he says.