We’re seeing the almond industry reaching new milestones for production, what has been key to this continual growth?

It’s mainly due to young plantings I think. We’ve had a lot of new plantings go in and they are just now coming into production. We’re predicting a 150,000-tonne crop in four years’ time, and that’s just based on young plantings already in the ground coming into production.

Were July rainfall levels helpful for growers?

We’ve had a look and we’ve obviously got some really good sub-soil moisture. That’s always good and it always helps a lot of us who are on drip orchards establish good crops.

Has there been any new technology developed to help almond growers recently?

The Almond Board is working on technology for monitoring for carpophilus beetles and diseases. My manager here in the technical office has been to a meeting regarding pheromone interrupters, that have traps with cameras in them so you can see what they are targeting.

There’s always new technology we’re looking at, and there’s a lot of new things out regarding the way we monitor our water use and tree growth.

Is the availability of bees presenting any challenges for growers?

There’s obviously a fair demand on bees and the biggest problem was going to be when South Australia had the lockdown. But I’m very thankful to the CEO of the Almond Board of Australia, who was able to work with the New South Wales, Victorian and South Australian Government.

We’re having trouble getting fruiting buds in Queensland, but hopefully we get good pollination weather.

Are self-fertile almond tree varieties becoming more viable?

There’s definitely a lot more self-fertile trees that are out, and we’ve put those in ourselves. sThey’re not self-pollinating, but you need a lot less bees per hectare than what you usually need to cross pollinate.

They are working on breeding more precocious varieties while are not only self-fertile, but can also self-pollinate.

However, we’re a few years away from that.

Are prices looking favourable for growers this year?

It looks like the price is returning a bit. We had a bit of a crash in price over the 2021 crop season – it’s been a bit of a low-price year. But it’s already starting to improve because of the severe drought in California, so hopefully we’ll have a good year.

Any advice for growers at this time?

Growers should be making sure their irrigation maintenance is up to scratch, because we’ll start watering soon. We’re a bit of a way off February now, but we’ll get there.