South Australia has a long history of apple growing, starting in the Adelaide Hills in the 1860's. It produces around 29,000 tonnes of apples annually, which returns an annual farmgate value of production of nearly $60 million. This includes about 2,000 tonnes of apples which are processed annually. SA production represents about 9 percent of Australia's apple production. South Australian fresh apple exports are over 1,000 tonnes each year, mainly the variety Cripps Pink (sold as Pink Lady™) (90 percent of exports). Processed apple juice (120,000 litres) and dried apples (8 tonnes) are also exported. South Australia's fresh apple exports are valued at $2.8 million annually. Value of apple juice and dried apple exports are $1.5 million.
There are currently about 1.5 million apple trees in South Australia, grown by its 220 apple growers, of which about 100 growers primarily produce apples; the remainder produce apples with other mixed enterprises. Most apple growers in SA (80 percent) have small holdings of less than twenty hectares; the remaining 20 percent farming in excess of twenty hectares. Apple orchards in SA are almost all family-owned and run.
The Adelaide Hills regions is the State's most important and longest established, with 80 percent of the growers. Centred on the Lenswood Valley, apple growing in this area is characterised by good clay/loam soils and a rainfall of around 1000mm annually. While being of 34 degrees of latitude south it has a climate moderated by around 500m of altitude and South-westerly weather patterns.
The Riverland is an area 250km to the North-east of Adelaide and bordering the Murray River. The area has very low rainfall <250mm and is irrigated solely with water sourced from the Murray River. Soils vary from sand to clay, with apples found on the heavy soils. Because of the climate, the Riverland grows varieties best suited to those conditions and enjoys a early advantage in the marketplace.
The Limestone Coast growing region is centred close to the regional city of Mt Gambier, which is 450km South-east of Adelaide. The area has been relatively recently developed for apple growing. It is a cool growing region with good soils generally and plentiful water.
Adam Beauchamp is a fifth generation orchardist from Basket Range in the Adelaide Hills. He is married to Kylie and they have three children. Adam continues a long family tradition of fruit growing with his father and they currently crop 12 hectares of apples and 3 hectares of cherries.
Their newest plantings are Cripps Pink (sold as Pink Lady™), Galaxy Gala, and Red Fuji apples.
Adam has already seen many changes in the 15 years he has been orcharding with many older plantings removed as older varieties lose favour, much closer planting spaces and new tree-training methods. He feels that whilst offering good soils, Basket Range is challenging as the hills are steep and deep gullies of the area pose problems for attaining good colour on some apple varieties.
Marketing of his products is one issue that Adam feels passionate about. He sees a need for more of a cooperative approach to the marketing of apples, a need for insightful innovation and education of the consumer is tantamount to progress.
Adam feels that there is a gap between the consumers understanding of the product and the producer's ability to control the product once it leaves the farm gate. He would like to see more use of innovative packaging such as "refrigerator friendly" smaller containers and variety descriptions on the actual pack or bag. Adam has the combined experience of many generations behind him, but knows he must continue to expand his knowledge to continue the fruit growing tradition on his family's property. Membership of such organisations as the Ag Bureau is very important for the fruit growing community to keep abreast of the challenges facing them.
Tim is latest scion of the long line of orchardists from Lenswood. Tim's great-grandfather John Vickers started the orchard in the late 1890's. Tim has been orcharding with his father and grandfather for eight years since finishing school. Tim is in charge of most of the spraying and mowing work done on the orchard and enjoys this outside work. Tim believes that compliance with the many regulations and export requirements will make farming much more demanding, and that continued low prices for fruit will require careful management of orchard practices. Tim strongly believes that changing orchards to more "dwarfing" trees will help keep overhead costs down. Tim has a keen interest in learning and expanding his knowledge and completed a Leadership Course with PIRSA in 2001. Tim expresses a hope to continue the long Vickers' tradition as successful and respected orchardists.
