Flower farmer’s final harvest reveals the challenges of a shrinking industry
Up to 90 per cent of flowers sold this Mother’s Day will be imported as domestic production lags far behind demand. ⌘ Read more

Younger people aren’t drinking wine, and there’s too much for sale
Too much wine might not seem like a problem, but take a drive through Australian wine country and you’ll quickly see how a global glut has created a crisis. ⌘ Read more

Picking veggies can be dangerous, and a new program is out to help protect multicultural workers
Training with visual aids, less text, and targeted translation is helping vegetable growers keep their overseas workers safe. ⌘ Read more

Months after the smoke cleared it’s still a long road to recovery for Perth fruit growers
Five months on from a devastating bushfire, fruit growers north of Perth are walking a long road to recovery. Heat-damaged trees will not bear fruit this season, but farmers are also counting their blessings. ⌘ Read more

Crickets and cabernet, anyone? Winery launches edible insect wine tasting
A South Australian winery is turning the tables on wine tastings by pairing gourmet crunchy critters with cabernet to celebrate its focus on sustainability. ⌘ Read more

How an outback olive oil landed on the tables of Sydney’s top restaurants
A group of Broken Hill olive oil enthusiasts planted a grove in the heart of town that went on to supply Bill Granger’s restaurants and win international awards. ⌘ Read more

Seedless mangoes could be around the corner, but are shoppers willing to pay for them?
Demand for seedless fruit is growing and the technology needed to create new varieties is improving rapidly, but some in the industry say “the price point just hasn’t been there” to convince farmers to grow them. ⌘ Read more

Outback blogger’s creative outlet away from farm life strikes chord with foodies
What started as blog posts centred around her thoughts, recipes and life on a remote sheep station more than a decade ago has become a popular creative outlet for Jane Smith. ⌘ Read more

Farmers seek protection from ‘mafia tactics’ of big supermarkets
Fruit and vegetable growers are expected to give evidence behind closed doors, out of fear of retribution, about supermarket price gouging and low farmgate prices. ⌘ Read more

After nearly 20 years in refugee camps, this Bhutanese community is giving back with vegetables
After nearly two decades confined in camps, these Bhutanese families find a unique way to help build a new life in Australia, from the ground up. ⌘ Read more

Trailblazing ‘pick your own’ strawberry farmers call time after decades of sweet success
Now a well-worn stop for tourists at the top end of the Sunshine State, Ballantyne’s Strawberry Farm is known for its early adoption of agritourism. ⌘ Read more

Man turns mammoth 400kg prize-winning pumpkin into a canoe, paddles it down river
A fan of shenanigans and the unnecessary, the former commodore of the Tumut Canoe Club donned a captain’s hat and pipe to paddle the biggest pumpkin grown in Australia this year down a river, Popeye style. ⌘ Read more

Bhavik’s Top End tropical fruit wonderland
Who wouldn’t want 200 varieties of tropical fruit at their place? ⌘ Read more

Australians are consuming less fruit, vegetables and milk — here’s what that looks like
Australians are eating less of all major food groups, with fresh produce leading the decline, says a new report. ⌘ Read more

‘Geez, that’s a bit heavy!’ Jumbo jackfruit stuns farmer in Far North Queensland
Jackfruit usually weigh between 5 and 15 kilograms, but a grower south of Cairns has just harvested this “impressive” 45-kilogram monster fruit. ⌘ Read more

How do you know if extra-virgin olive oil is really extra-virgin?
Australia relaunches an olive oil monitoring program amid concerns consumers are purchasing inferior or fraudulent products. ⌘ Read more

Frangipani trees in Darwin ‘hammered’ by exotic pest. Can ladybirds stop it from spreading south?
Since its discovery last year, the papaya mealybug has spread across Darwin, impacting a range of host plants such as papaya, hibiscus and frangipanis. ⌘ Read more

It’s now loved all over the world, but who really invented the flat white?
This is the little-known story of how Italian sugar growers in the Sunshine State are said to have inspired the “invention” of the flat white — a drink that would go on to become a global sensation. ⌘ Read more

Is ditching the city for a country vineyard as romantic as it sounds?
Leaving the city and buying a vineyard in the country sounds romantic – the fresh air, drinking wine from the grapes you’ve cultivated, working your own hours, and raising a family in wide open spaces. But does the reality live up to the narrative? ⌘ Read more

Think $5.50 is too much for a flat white? Actually it’s too cheap, and our world-famous cafes are paying the price
Our recent survey of Australian capital cities found the average price of a small takeaway flat white at speciality venues is $4.78. But in some international capitals, it’s almost double this, even after adjusting for local purchasing power parity. ⌘ Read more

Wine grape growers rip out vineyards after historic low prices blamed on oversupply
Prices have been below the cost of production with estimates of losses of up to $2,000 per hectare on some grape varieties. ⌘ Read more

‘Great Friday’ for winemakers ready to ‘instantly’ resume shipments of China-bound drops
While wine authorities say getting Australian exports to China back to pre-tariff levels could be “a matter of years”, many in the industry are not only rejoicing, but getting set to resume shipments. ⌘ Read more

The town that chocolate built: How a global cocoa crisis poured money into these remote PNG villages
Over the last few years, a peculiar change has taken place in Papua New Guinea’s north-west, with remote, traditional villages modernising at a rapid pace. Here’s how the price of cocoa is fuelling development. ⌘ Read more

Listen back to the Queensland Country Hour
Listen back to the Queensland Country Hour for March 28. ⌘ Read more

Victorian Premier says tobacco shop licensing will roll out by end of year
Victoria will finally set up a tobacco licensing scheme, more than two years after it was recommended, as part of a crackdown on the illegal tobacco trade that has sparked a spate of fire bombings. ⌘ Read more

Adelaide Hills’ garlic farm’s honour-system shut down after thieves steal cash
Haaesford Farms Garlic in the Adelaide Hills is temporarily closing it’s ‘honour system’ garlic shed after thieves stole hundreds of dollars in cash. ⌘ Read more

Tens of thousands of vapes seized in Queensland
Queensland Health has issued hundreds of fines in its attempt to rid the state of illegal vapes and tobacco products, as the government calls for even tougher laws. ⌘ Read more

Grape grower by day, DJ by night: The ‘blockie’ who’s played the same festivals as The Prodigy
With the wine industry in crisis, Andrew Sarakinis is glad his career in music allows him to provide for his family financially and still honour his” blockie” roots. ⌘ Read more

Developer looking to merging homes, farming into ‘agrihoods’ to ease food, housing pressures
Ever wanted to quit the city and run away to start a farm? Welcome to the agrihood, where you can have town living in a rural setting. ⌘ Read more

Fruit growers facing difficult future as key WA dam dries up
Water in Glen Mervyn Dam, 200km south of Perth, has dropped by 80 per cent in a year, prompting calls for growers to future-proof their orchards. ⌘ Read more

Wong set to press China’s foreign minister over Yang Hengjun death sentence during high-profile meeting
The first official meeting between Penny Wong and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi since 2022 comes at a sensitive time in relations between the two countries. ⌘ Read more

The history of winemaking in Australia
Over three lavishly illustrated volumes Andrew Caillard, renowned in Australian and international wine circles for his work as a wine auctioneer, expert, and writer, tells the stories of the people and events that have shaped the wine industry in Australia. ⌘ Read more

Growing watermelons in outback NSW is ‘all about water’ access, young family says
Growing watermelons in NSW’s Far West to the scale the Gebert family planned had never been done before, but where there is a will, there is a way. ⌘ Read more

Tank farms show stark reality of Australia’s wine industry crisis even if China drops tariffs
Chinese authorities have announced an interim decision that tariffs of 220 per cent on Australian wine are not longer necessary, but the industry doesn’t see a return to the market fixing its crisis. ⌘ Read more

Fruit, veg growers say biggest customer ‘is the rubbish bin’, as millions of tonnes of food is wasted
Fresh produce growers scramble to meet “forecast” supply deals with supermarkets, but every year millions of dollars of surplus food goes to waste. So what’s going on? ⌘ Read more

Beijing on cusp of removing crippling tariffs from Aussie wine
Beijing appears to be just weeks away from removing tariffs that have crippled Australia’s wine industry since 2020, with an interim decision by China’s authorities reporting that the duties are no longer necessary. ⌘ Read more

Fruit collector’s favourite time of year arrives as obscure figs come into season
A South Australian farmer wants to see more of the thousands of fig varieties become more widely available to consumers. ⌘ Read more

Newly announced wine taskforce to spotlight glut as industry reaches crisis point
Very low prices for wine grapes and low demand is putting excessive pressure on the wine industry, leading to the formation of a taskforce to report on the challenges faced by Australian growers and winemakers. ⌘ Read more

Sunburnt fruit getting ‘cooked’ on the tree as dry spell continues in WA
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts below average autumn rainfall across the South West, with drought conditions across parts of the North West also set to stretch on. ⌘ Read more

Fruit fly outbreak worries SA growers as restrictions imposed
Producers say the detection of the pest could lead to an increase in costs for consumers and impact supply. ⌘ Read more

Nothing to cheer, as two-billion-litre glut of red wine sparks calls for halt on new vine plantings
With the equivalent of more than 860 Olympic swimming pools worth of wine in storage and growers being paid 1970s prices for grapes, the industry is in a crisis bordering on catastrophe. ⌘ Read more

What are the rules around wine labelling?
If you’ve picked up a bottle of wine because the label looked fun and seemed to originate from a wine region you trust, it may be time to take a closer look. ⌘ Read more

‘A lot of contentious issues on the agenda’: Australia and China preparing for high-level talks
Details and dates are still to be determined and announced, but experts say a range of thorny issues could be on the table. ⌘ Read more

China wine tariffs expected to be gone by end of March after trade minister meets with Chinese counterpart
The ABC understands that China will lift wine tariffs it had placed on Australian at the end of March, after Trade Minister Don Farrell met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao overnight. ⌘ Read more

How a clever craft distillery used grapes and rocks to win World’s Best Botanical Vodka
Forget potatoes or the Russians, Australian “underdogs” have taken out the 2024 title of World’s Best Botanical Vodka using grapes and ancient volcanic rocks. ⌘ Read more

Farmers still toiling to fix infrastructure months after Cyclone Jasper flooded the Far North
Daintree farmers have been working for two months to fix infrastructure damaged by Tropical Cyclone Jasper floods, but say there are many more months to go before they will get on top of the repairs. ⌘ Read more

Tourist crops providing selfie solution for famed Queensland sunflower fields
Specially grown sunflower crops are springing up around Southern Queensland to help meet demand from crowds of visitors keen for a photo. ⌘ Read more

Red meat industry questions sustainability ‘remit’ of Australian Dietary Guideline review
Sustainability is on the menu for the official review of the national dietary guidelines, but the red meat industry is concerned it will not recognise its work to reduce greenhouse emissions. ⌘ Read more

Listen back to the Queensland Country Hour
Listen back to the Queensland Country Hour for February 22nd 2024 ⌘ Read more

Hundreds of grape growers being paid 1970s rates at breaking point in Australia’s largest wine region
Growers in South Australia’s Riverland will gather at a crisis meeting as warm inland wine regions are pushed to breaking point by 1970s prices for their grapes. ⌘ Read more