Rain-hit orchards still producing 'best quality' lychees in time for Christmas
Wholesalers say lychee eating quality is extremely high this year. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)
In short:
Queensland farmers have produced the best eating quality lychees in decades this Christmas.
Although the quality is great, yield has suffered due to weather impacts on farms.
What's next?
Supply should remain strong through Christmas, but will begin to dwindle come the new year.
Despite season constraints and rain-delayed harvests, this summer is producing some of the best Queensland lychees in decades according to the wholesalers.
Yield and supply have been a bit of a mixed bag from grower to grower across the main lychee regions, such as Northern Queensland, Wide Bay and the Sunshine Coast.
But wholesaler Larry Griffin from Simon George and Sons in Townsville said the quality was exceptional.
"It's the best year I can remember, [and] I've been doing it for so long. Everything just eats so beautifully,"he said.
Growers are reporting a lower lychee yield this year. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)
For consumers, prices are slightly cheaper compared to last Christmas, when the price sat at around $25 per kilo.
Mr Griffin said larger fruit was selling for closer to $20 per kilo, but the smaller fruit could fetch $12 per kilo.
"I have seen stuff down for $10 a kilo on farm, but that's your second-grade stuff, but still eating beautifully," he said.
But the drop in prices is not because supply is higher than last year.
Larry Griffin says the lychees coming through to him are the best quality he has ever seen. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)
Rain impacts
President of the Australian Lychee Growers Association Derek Foley said heavy rain had impacted the number of lychees hitting the market floor.
He said this caused the price to fluctuate.
"There's quite a bit of rain through parts of [the lychees] flowering and that's washed the pollen out of some of the flowers and certainly interrupted the crop," he said.
"But having said that, some very good crops in the north, but there's also some not so good and that same syndrome has seems to be appearing now on the Sunshine Coast.
"Some farms that are very regular producers of fruit year in, year out have been affected also, apparently, by all the wet weather that they've experienced."
Wet weather has impacted the number of lychees coming to market. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)
However, Mr Griffin said there would be ample supply through the Christmas period.
"Definitely in a few weeks we will see it start to taper off at some point in January, a lot of that's going to be on how much demand soaks up that volume as well," he said.
He said most of his lychees were sourced from the Mareeba area and he focused on providing to hospitality businesses and the retail sector.
Prices are lower than last year, which he said could be due to a lower overall retail demand.
"We're coming in the Christmas, everyone's doing a bit tough, there's talk about interest rates going up. I think that all kind of plays a part into how keen people are to spend their money," Mr Griffin said.
"But [lychees] have definitely taken off this year for us in sales."
Come January, lychee supply will start to weaken. (ABC Rural: Sophie Johnson)
Some varieties producing less
On Salvatore Girgenti's lychee farm in Mareeba, he said some varieties were producing well this year, like the B3s, but others had seen a low yield.
So far, most trees have only been producing 50 per cent of their desired volumes.
"It's weather affected mostly — long wet season two [years] in a row and just fluctuations, big fluctuations, in the weather," he said.
"Last year we probably had more fruit, with younger trees."
He expected the price for lychees would increase soon.
"You've got other areas which I believe have been affected [by weather] as well, Bundaberg, for example, has had some bad luck," Mr Girgenti said.
"The other coastal areas that from what I'm hearing are wrapping up there picking already and this area, there's a few farmers that have finished already.
"I feel the price should be going up from here. It probably went down prematurely. It has been a strange pricing this year."