Growing high quality fruit at an internationally competitive cost of production

November 2011 | Prepared and presented by Ross Wilson, AgFirst | Future Orchards® Orchard Walk notes and presentation

Ross Wilson examines what it means for Australian apple and pear businesses to grow high-quality fruit at an internationally competitive cost of production. The resource was prepared at a time when the Australian market was becoming more exposed to imported pome fruit, increasing the importance of understanding both product quality and unit production costs.

The notes distinguish between cost per gross kilogram and cost per Class 1 kilogram and use Orchard Business Analysis data from around 20 businesses in both 2008 and 2010 to compare performance. In the 2008 data, cost of production ranged from about $0.70 to $2.10 per gross kilogram and from $0.90 to $2.55 per Class 1 kilogram, illustrating the large difference between efficient and high-cost businesses.

The main management implication is that competitiveness is not achieved by cutting expenditure indiscriminately. Growers need enough productive canopy, strong marketable yields and high packout so that orchard and post-harvest costs are spread across more saleable fruit. The resource encourages benchmarking, block-level analysis and disciplined attention to the drivers of Class 1 production.