SITUATED just off Bookpurnong Road, connecting Riverland towns Berri and Loxton, is Gurra Road.

A few kilometres down Gurra Road, the Riverland Date Garden, run solely by local Steve Brauer, is found.

The garden will celebrate its 20th year in 2024, when it begun by originally planting 15 Barhee dates.

Mr Brauer’s inspiration came via an Israeli backpacker, who asked why there were no dates in the area, and as they say, the rest is the history.

“Him asking why there were no dates really got me thinking and looking into it all,” Mr Brauer said.

“After all, it’s a family farm and we had the land to do something about it.

“It’s definitely been a big learning curve because it’s a crop that isn’t really grown in Australia, so there’s not too much knowledge around it.”

As has been well documented, the Riverland region was swept by a rampaging flood in the latter stages of 2022, which Mr Brauer says created challenges.

However, enough measures were in place to save a lot of the produce, ensuring income wasn’t damaged.

“With Barhee dates, hypothetically, a hectare averages between 150-200kg per tree, so there are roughly 120 trees to a hectare,” he said.

“The current value is anywhere upwards from $20, so you don’t need to have a huge amount of acreage to have a decent return.

“Last year we got wiped out with the flood, so I tried salvaging what I had on the crop, and luckily enough I had the pumpkins there.

“The freight charge to get the supply to Sydney was $300 per pallet, so the dates went on top of the pumpkins to cover the freight charge and I got a great return.”

Upon starting the business, Mr Brauer had five separate date varieties, with a high amount of trial and error involved.

He says advances in technology, particularly the use of soil monitoring, have helped his business grow in considerable fashion.

Exporting is the next big step for Mr Brauer, with other Australian states beginning overseas exports in 2023. 

“Soil monitoring these days is important for any horticultural crop, because you’ve got the prices of water and electricity, so you don’t want to over-irrigate,” he said.

“You put the nutrients out because you don’t want to push the water past the active profile.

“Certain varieties didn’t adapt well to the conditions so they got put on the backburner.

“I’m just concentrating on the Barhee because I see us looking to produce to the counter-seasonal, so if we have enough fruit we can start exporting. 

“Alice Springs started exporting last year to overseas countries, and the Barhee’s became really popular in the Middle East.

“Technology advances have helped me keep an eye on the soil monitoring and weather stations I have set up.

“It means I can get my business out on to my website and social media platforms such as Facebook, and I do a lot of sales through there that go direct to the public.

“It probably took up to 10 years before we got frequent sales through, but social media has definitely been good.”

Mr Brauer says the conditions play a significant role, ensuring his products are not susceptible to becoming dried out overtime.

Keeping control of the weather can bring obvious challenges, which is one of the main reasons why Mr Brauer places protective bags over his dates.

“As well as the Barhees, we also concentrate on Medjools because there is a reasonable market for the Australian-grown ones,” he said.

“I don’t let my Medjools get as dry as what you might see in Coles and Woolworths where they’re imported, because they need certain specifics to get into the country, so I have a bit of an advantage,” he said.

“You don’t want to get over confident and try too many different varieties.”

Fruit fly has, and always will be an issue in the Riverland, with more than 45 outbreaks occurring.

However, Mr Brauer says while fruit fly does play a factor, it isn’t always the main concern, with other issues arising.

“Fruit fly hasn’t been a major drama as of yet, but we have been warned the Barhees are susceptible to fruit fly, so we put our bags around them,” he said.

“Marketing is a bit more difficult because I keep having to say no to customers in Adelaide who want to purchase them, because you have to follow the rules.

“I never spray the date trees so there aren’t any chemicals going on the tree itself, and they only attract minimal pests.

“We try and minimise the risks of natural causes like rain hitting the fruit, and we only had about 5 per cent damage over Christmas.

“The main time we don’t want rain is when it’s nearly ready to harvest, but I work on what’s coming and do what I can do.”

For more information, see Mr Brauer’s website (riverlanddates.com.au).