In the lush strawberry fields of South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula, the fruit looks ready to ripen, and growers are gearing up for another picking season.
“I’ve talked to the agents in Queensland — they’re telling me that 90 per cent of production there has been either thrown in the bin or not picked,” said Brenton Sherry, who runs production business Kuitpo Strawberries near Mount Compass.
“Only 10 per cent will be saleable because the consumer’s lost confidence.”
Traditionally, strawberry production in South Australia has picked up in spring, at the end of the Queensland season. During this time, Mr Sherry’s business usually exports to Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
Returns on recent harvests, however, have been hampered by what he described as a “glut” of oversupply.
With shoppers spooked as the contamination scandal now spreads to NSW, wholesale prices have entered freefall — slumping to just 33 cents a punnet.
That amount is well below the cost of production, and unsustainable in the long term.
“Once strawberries hit below $2 a punnet, growers are losing money,” Mr Sherry said.
“Growers can only sustain that for a certain period of time.”
Six brands of strawberries are now believed to be affected by needle and pin contamination, including one sold in SA. The Queensland Government has put up a cash reward of $100,000 to find the culprit.
Police are examining tampered punnets to work out if they are related to the first case, or the work of a copycat.
“When you’ve got six different packing sheds, separated packing sheds, you wouldn’t think it was the packers or the workers who are doing it,” Mr Sherry said.
His daughter Megan went so far as to describe the sewing needle scare as a “huge nail in the coffin”.
“It’s pretty scary… it’s a terrifying prospect that one person can cause such malicious damage,” she said.
“To destroy an industry overnight… is just epic.”
But she had a simple message for consumers eager to taste a safe strawberry.
“They can come and pick their own if they need to, to restore that confidence,” she said.
Others are taking even more drastic steps, with one consumer at the Adelaide Central Market telling the ABC he had decided to grow his own.
“Put it this way — we’ve planted strawberries in the last couple of days, so we’ve been put off for some time,” he said.
“I wouldn’t buy them at all, doesn’t matter where they’re from.”
Other market goers expressed similar sentiments, but some are still sticking with their beloved berries, albeit cautiously.
Several said they were making sure they avoided the affected brands, as well as cutting the fruit up first. Stallholders were spruiking the fruit as loudly as ever.
The irony of the whole affair, Mr Sherry said, was that prices would eventually rebound to ensure decent returns for growers. How soon that happens, he added, was uncertain.
“Once local supplies come on board from South Australia and Victoria, confidence will return,” he said.
“Eventually prices will go through the roof — because there’s no fruit left.”
