Strawberry prices soar after wet weather, disease impact winter crops

Strawberry prices have skyrocketed due to a lack of supply. (ABC Rural: Katherine Sullivan)

First it was lettuce, now strawberries are being sold for staggering prices, with a Canberra supermarket asking $11.99 for a 250g punnet.

To put it in perspective, the same supermarket selling the pricey Victorian-grown punnets was discounting fruit at three for $2 in August last year.

Queensland Strawberry Grower's president Adrian Schultz said prices would remain high because wet weather and disease had decimated crops at a time the nation relied on Queensland's winter strawberries.

"To put it bluntly it would be a record, but the thing to remember is that farmers aren't getting rich on these prices."

The punnets were produced by Australia's largest strawberry grower, Sunny Ridge in Victoria, which usually would have finished its season by now.

But farmers in Victoria and Stanthorpe have continued to pick because Queensland's peak winter growers, around the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg, have had production delayed by up to a month.

Adrian Schultz says the current strawberry prices in store are unheard of. (ABC Rural: Melanie Groves)

Berries Australia executive director Rachel Mackenzie said severe weather in key growing regions was behind the steep prices.

Ashbern Farms provides strawberries year round by growing in Stanthorpe in summer and in the Glass House Mountains in winter.

But co-owner Brendon Hoyle said the Sunshine Coast harvest had only just started, when it would usually begin in May.

"It's been a very trying start to the season with the deluge of rain that we've experienced in the overcast and wet weather, which has dominated pretty much from planting all the way through to our first flush of strawberries," he said.

He said other factors such as the rising cost of production and transport were also having an effect.

Prices around Australia have skyrocketed with a 250g punnet anywhere from $7 to $12. (ABC Rural: Lucy Cooper)

Disease hinders harvest

Mr Hoyle said wet weather wasn't the only headwind strawberry growers faced, with plant disease also causing headaches.

[At] the beginning of the season, when the day temperatures are 23 to 27 and it is extremely wet, any of the fungal issues that we normally experience just take over and it's just a real battle to try and keep them under control."

Strawberry grower Brendon Hoyle says recent rain has affected plant health. (ABC Rural: Melanie Groves)

Strawberries have experienced incredible variation in prices in the past 12 months.

A 250g punnet was $1.50 in September 2021.

Ms Mackenzie said she hoped Australian consumers would continue to support the industry.

"We do have to remember that when prices are high, only a very small number of growers are getting those premium prices," she said.

Rachel Mackenzie says strawberry prices will drop as supply increases. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)

It won't last forever

Ms Mackenzie said prices would drop as soon as supply increased.

"The northern growers in WA certainly are having a great season and they are probably accounting for the majority of what we are seeing in shops at the moment."