Cyclone Marcia hit central Queensland in February last year, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to fruit farms. Yet, now pineapple farmers are rejoicing over what is set to be their best crop since the cyclone.
Pineapple farmer Ben Clifton’s property was one of those hit by Marcia’s fury. After the storm, Mr Clifton had to decide if it was viable to rebuild.
“Twenty per cent of all our young plantings in the ground were destroyed from sheer wind damage – just picking up the sand off the ground and basically sand blasting the outside two or three rows of each block,” he said.
“We had half-a-million pineapples ready to be harvested and we picked zero of them.”
But he decided to continue on and is now harvesting one of his best crops in years.
He has more than 6 million individual pineapple plants on his farm, with each fruit taking about two years to grow.
“Fortunately Mother Nature has come to the party,” he said.
“She’s given us regular rainfall and that’s been the making of the beautiful crop we’ve got behind us.”
From Mr Clifton’s farm, the fruit is sent to a nearby packing shed and then distributed to markets around Australia.
Source: Fresh Plaza