Cool has lychees running bit late

North Queensland lychees will hit shelves across the country in the coming weeks as fruit begins to ripen.

While some varieties are performing better than last year and others doing not so well, due to an extended cold period, growers have forecast a similar crop to last year.

Australian Lychee Growers Association executive officer Jill Houser said Far North growers had reported strong flowering, but late fruit set.

“Everyone is reporting that the early flowers haven’t set fruit very good and it’s not until the later flowers come through, which are the female flowers, that will set the fruit,” she said.

“The timing of the season seems to be similar to last year so we’d be looking at a little bit of fruit coming in early November.

“But it (the season from the Tablelands) probably won’t kick off until about mid-November.”

For growers along the North Queensland coast south of the Cairns area, cold weather had also hindered fruit set.

“Growers have said they’ve had the longest and the coldest winter in about eight years and that they’ve had the best fruit set in about five years,” Ms Houser said.

“They’re saying the cooler weather did produce good flowering on all the varieties, but once again early flower was disappointing.

“The later flower is the one that’s setting the fruit.”

Ms Houser was hoping prices would remain on par with last season, with some growers fetching up to $20/kg last year.

Mareeba grower Gug Micieli expected to pick his first fruit of the season in about two weeks.

Also experiencing the impacts of cold weather, he said his crop was coming on a bit later than usual.

“Colder nights make a big difference,” he said.

“We’re just starting to get colour now, some of the smaller trees have got more colour, but the bigger trees are a bit behind.

“Some varieties are up this year and some are down.”