Cooler spring blamed for Tasmania's later Christmas berry, cherry harvest
Spring sprung late in Tasmania — and that has affected the timing of berries and cherries. (ABC News: Lachlan Ford)
In short:
Tasmania has experienced a colder, wetter and windier spring than usual.
The conditions have slowed the berry and cherry seasons, meaning some crops are not ready in time for Christmas.
What's next?
Cherry growers are hoping to make up for the poor festive season with a more fruitful lunar new year.
Christmas is usually a boom time for Tasmanian berry producers, but this year's cold spring has slowed crops and hurt profits.
Richard Clark, the owner of Westerway Raspberry Farm, said in a more normal year, around 20 per cent of the business' revenue was generated in the week leading up to Christmas.
But this year, the business was making only half of what it usually would.
"It's been a terribly cold October, November and first part of December,"Mr Clark said.
Windy and cold conditions have impacted Christmas expectations, berry grower Richard Clark says. (ABC News: Lachlan Ford)
Cold patches in spring were not uncommon in Tasmania, but usually there were enough warmer days interspersed to promote growth and ripening.
"Normally, the temperature rises and they (the berries) bounce back and they catch up there," Mr Clark said.
"There's just been no warmth. There's been no sunshine."
The fruit grower started raspberry farming at just 15 years old.
Now, at 42, Mr Clark said this was the latest season he had seen in his time in the industry.
"It's pretty hard and pretty devastating when you're a business that's set up to try to supply fresh berries into the pre-Christmas market," he said.
"Normally, in the week before Christmas, our bushes would be full of berries and happy faces and smiles of pickers in the fields, but it's windy, it's cold."
Families are picking their own berry crop out at the Westerway Raspberry Farm. (ABC News: Lachlan Ford)
Mr Clark said there was usually strong demand each year for berries for the Christmas table, before demand and prices dropped immediately.
"After Christmas, people tend not to go to the supermarket as much, they've got all those leftovers and their fridges are filled,"he said.
"So, missing that pre-Christmas window does compromise some of your sales and some of your high-value sales."
Sunnier weather last week has helped the crop catch up, but only provided enough fruit to sell small 100g packs, instead of family or bulk packs.
It has also helped to provide some work for pickers, whose numbers on the farm have been well down.
"Today we've got 35 pickers; last year we would have had 70 pickers working for the last three or four days in the lead up to Christmas. Yesterday we only had 10 pickers; the day before I had five pickers," Mr Clark said.
Despite those delays, he was maintaining his positive outlook.
"On the 27th, we'll have fruit coming out of our ears, so things will happen, it's just that they're not happening before Christmas," Mr Clark said.
"I would suggest a New Year's Day pavlova."
Weather delays also hitting Christmas cherries
The weather conditions have been challenging for another popular festive fruit.
One cherry grower says November soil temperatures were, on average, about two degrees lower than the previous year. (ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Lees Orchard at Dilston called in a helicopter to dry its cherry-laden trees in time for Christmas Eve sales.
Their crop was two weeks behind its usual timing due to the cold and wet weather.
Sharing a video on social media, they said, "it wouldn't be a normal cherry season without some stress".
Matthew Griggs from Lucaston Park Orchards said November soil temperatures were about two degrees lower than the previous year.
"Which makes quite a big difference with how trees develop through the season, and then also on the back of the wettest November on record, it's been quite a challenging growing season," he said.
"Normally, we would be starting our main cherry harvest at the end of December, but now it's looking more like towards the end of the first week of January.
"So yeah, definitely at least a week or more behind."
Mr Griggs was pinning his hopes on a more fruitful Lunar New Year period in February.
"We're tracking a little bit later, so I think the timing is going to be very good for us, which is fortunate," he said.
"We're very lucky it's not an early Chinese year."