Profitable Stonefruit Research

Under the Serviced Supply Chains II (SSCII) project, Agriculture Victoria Research developed and tested the following recommendations:

  • Select appropriate varieties for air or sea-freight supply chains. Researchers completed storage trials and developed a shelf-life prediction tool to determine fruit storage potential.
  • Harvest fruit at optimal maturity. Researchers showed that a DA meter (non-destructive tool that measures chlorophyll content and harvest timing) can be used to measure the optimal physiological maturity and inform harvest schedules.
  • Monitor export handling conditions. Researchers demonstrated the benefits of real-time consignment monitoring for identifying deviations from best practice and guiding variety selection.
  • Use stepwise cooling to reduce fruit disorders. Researchers found that pre-cooling fruit to 12°C for 48 hours prior to packing reduced disorders relative to fast cooling at 0-2°C. White peach disorders include internal browning and a mealy texture.
  • Use modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) to extend shelf-life. Researchers showed that packing fruit into boxes lined with MAP packaging can delay the onset of disorders.

Interview with Dean Morpeth from Sharp Fruit.

Video transcript:

Dean Morpeth. So, I'm a fourth-generation stone fruit grower in Woorinen, Northern Victoria, and I've been involved with Sharp Fruit. It was created in 2018. We produce 5,000 metric tons of stone fruit per year. From an orchard perspective, predominantly I concentrate on white peaches and then other yellow and white nectarine for export markets.

We concentrate on export markets with the southeast Asia, China, more recently over into Canada, and there's a lot of growth happening in those markets, so growing fruit for those regions is really important for our business.

Being involved with this project is crucial for us as a business and then the wider industry to, to learn what varieties are suited, and then how to handle, to know the maturity and when the best time to pick the variety is. So, this project is great for the future of the Summerfruit industry.

One of the greatest challenges with summer fruit is to ensure that we get the fruit through at the right temperatures, and this project identifying step cooling, how it manages through the facility, from the facility to the freight on forwarders and controlling temperature, maturity, and I think that's one of the greatest challenges is how we're going to ensure that fruit arrives at the optimal eating experience and temperature, so that it's good for the consumer and good for the grower.

Some of the technologies that we're seeing coming through with the data loggers are real time, being able to assist in knowing where our produce is and what temperature it's sitting at. It's wonderful to see and is making a real difference to our industry. One of the next steps with the technology and the data loggers is to ensure we capture that end of shipment data. So, once it's in country, we can find out how the fruit is being stored, what temperature, how long, just so we can get a real idea of the best way to handle our produce.

Acknowledgment

The Serviced Supply Chains II project (AM21000) is funded by the Hort Innovation Frontiers Fund, Avocado and Strawberry research and development levy, and contributions from the Australian Government, with co-investment from the Department of Primary Industries, Queensland (DPI), Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victoria (DEECA), Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Northern Territory (DAF), Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Western Australia (DPIRD), Pinata Farms Pty Ltd and Summerfruit Australia Ltd. Hort Innovation is the grower-owned, not-for-profit research and development corporation for Australian horticulture.

Logos for Serviced Supply Chains II project