According to the APTRC bulletin released in June, harvest was completed for the 17/18 season on the 2 May, with processing completed by 4 May. With very little rain falling across the region from December 2017, unlike last season no crops were lost due to the Autumn break, which this year did not occur until May, and then only less than 30mm fell.
A total of 227,636 tonnes were processed during 2017/18. Currently, 234,450 tonnes are forecast for the 18/19 season.
227,636 tonnes of tomatoes were delivered for processing during the 2017/18 season. This is an increase of about 23% or 42,954 tonnes on last year’s intake. 331 tonnes of fruit was obtained from fresh tomato growers this season.
An area totalling around 2,457 hectares was planted by processing tomato growers during the 2017/18 season. A total of 49.7 hectares were not harvested this season due delayed harvest or flooding during the early season.
An average yield of around 94.4 tonnes/ha was achieved by processing tomato growers, from harvested area. This was an increase from the previous year, but still a decrease from the previous record of 106.1 tonnes/ha achieved in 2014/15.
99.3% of the planted area was irrigated via sub-surface drip irrigation. This was down from 98.6% in the previous year. Only 1 grower in the industry used furrow irrigation during the 2017/18 season.
88% of the planted area was established with transplants, up from 86% the previous year. 2017/18 had the greatest percentage of crops established from transplants ever.
The average tomato soluble solids level was 4.89%. 15 specialist processing tomato grower enterprises supplied the entire intake during the season.
Source : TomatoTopics June 2018