Tasmanian cherry, apricot growers report mixed fortunes

In Richmond, Sally Dakis estimates yield at her boutique cherry farm is about 50 per cent down on last year.

"Our season started late - we missed the Christmas period altogether," she said.

"We had rain, which damaged fruit, and the cool weather meant that the cherries didn't ripen at the time.

"It's been a very challenging season for us."

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Ms Dakis and partner Chris Wisbey farm about two hectares of trees at Richmond Cherries.

They have a focus on selling locally, and are regulars at the Launceston and Hobart farmers markets during summer.

Ms Dakis said Tasmanians could expect fresh cherries for about another three weeks.

"The silver lining now is that we're through the worst of that [difficult weather]," she said.

"Some of the ground has dried out and today was the first of our really beautiful large lapins."

Ten minutes down the road from Richmond Cherries, Penna Valley Farm's Margaret Easton is experiencing a different harvest altogether.

A former hairdresser who sold her two salons a decade ago, Mrs Easton farms a 100-acre plot with her husband, a fifth-generation farmer.

Starting off with 1500 apricot trees 18 years ago, they have grown to 8000 trees spanning 10 varieties, and added 400 fig trees.

They have been organic producers for the past six years.

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"It's been an excellent season," Mrs Easton said.

"It's late - we actually hadn't picked a piece of fruit before Christmas which is very unusual.

"Usually we start in the middle of December - but it's really good, all the rain was good.

"The past two years have been the lesser years, this year our yield's probably up by 40 per cent from last year."

Berry production at Lees Orchard, in Dilston, was hit hard by the cold spring weather.

Owner Brendon Morrison said the frost in late August took out a lot of the buds, and nearly three quarters of the crop was impacted by the weather.

"We had a good flower set, however the weather conditions caused a fair bit of damage," Mr Morrison said.

"We were hoping to pick somewhere between 10-15 tonnes of cherries and we will probably only get five.

"Hopefully we can try and break even with our costs. We haven't been able to give local people jobs, because we are down on numbers," he said.

Mr Morrison said like many other growers of cherries and berries, he had a late start to the season.

"We didn't have many sunny days, it was cloudy and wet, so that had an impact on the pollination side of things.

"It was the frost that did the bulk of the damage."

Due to the impact of production, Lees Orchard have had to operate with a skeleton staff, and have been unable to sell cherries in shops within Launceston.

"It was a shorter season because we started later and will finish early.

Lees Orchard are still selling cherries at their shed at 161 John Lees Dr, Dilston.

Interstate demand for Tasmanian produce is only getting stronger, Ms Dakis says.

This year more than ever, she has noticed visitors - especially from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane - seeking out their farm to get the full "Tasmanian fruit experience".

"We had a lot of people coming to the farm and we haven't been advertising," she said.

"There is a real drive and a real curiosity. We don't do pick-your-own, but there's a lot of people wanting to do pick-your-own.

"I think Tasmania's reputation as a fine fruit producer is really strong now.

"They want to come because of the reputation for flavoursome fruit, and I think that really bodes well for the tourism sector and farm sector."

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