A strong season but COVID-19 sours orchards fruit sales

When Glenbernie Orchard stopped selling fresh fruit to major supermarkets to focus on farm gate sales, it did so to diversify its business and gain more control over cashflow.

Key points:

Illawarra's last remaining commercial orchard has seen a fall of 93 per cent in sales since the COVID-19 lockdowns started

The business primarily sells fruit and associated products from its farm gate at Darkes Forest, between Wollongong and Sydney

Its orchard is likely to send some excess fruit that cannot be sold on site to be produced as cider

The only catch, according its owner, Jo-Anne Fahey, was that its business model was reliant on people being able to visit their farm at Darkes Forest, between Sydney and Wollongong.

"We're relying on selling our product direct to consumers and we can't bring the consumers to the farm," Ms Fahey said.

"We're 93 per cent down on sales, so that's not great."

With the farm closed to visitors, the business has tried to direct its customers to online shopping.

This presents a major challenge in sending fresh fruit via a courier network that is already straining under an increase in online shopping, as well as the associated costs of delivery for customers.

"It's extremely difficult to shift fresh fruit beyond the local area, and apples are not too bad for a couple of days in the delivery system, but over a week is not ideal," Ms Fahey said.

"I'm looking at the fruit and trying to come up with some strategies to get it to people before it's been in storage for too long."

Farm tours were one of several income streams stopped by COVID-19 lockdowns.(

ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale

)Excess could be turned into cider

Having no customers at the farm gate has meant the orchard has coolrooms full of apples that would have been sold.

If the apples cannot be sold as table fruit, Ms Fahey said she was likely to have to turn a large amount of her apples into cider.

"That's probably not a bad thing in the long run because we can extend the shelf life up to two to 10 years, depending on the cider we make," she said.

"You can only keep an apple for six to eight months in a coolroom and the packaging is far easier to send someone cider with a courier system.

"You don't have to worry about it going bad and we're also moving some products into cans and they're more lightweight than the bottles."

While cider may help ensure this year's apples do not go to waste, there is still a short-term cash flow problem in the absence of table fruit sales.

Growing conditions in 2021 are providing an excellent balance of weather and rain, but the Glenbernie Orchard is still trying to sell last season's crop.(

ABC Illawarra: Justin Huntsdale

)Lockdown on eve of strong season

With apple picking not due until January next year, the farm's next drop is stone fruit due to be harvested in November.

While the lockdown has been terrible for businesses, the growing conditions have been ideal for fruit trees.

"Apples love the cold, so the cold has been a great thing to help with this year's crop," Ms Fahey said.

"We've had a nice amount of rain, so the trees are not sitting in water, but there is no stress with drought.

"Overall it's looking really good and we'll have a good season."

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