Australian pomegranate look set to soar this season, with early signs showing promise in terms of both quality and demand.
“There is more and more awareness of pomegranate in Australia,” PomLife general manager Joshua Reuveni says, noting that until a few years ago “pomegranate wasn’t such a common fruit to have on Australian tables”.
“Now, consumption of the fruit is also increasing as people become more familiar with it, which is very good.”
PomLife established their orchards, in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley, in 2008 – well before the majority of Australians were familiar with the fruit. The company is now one of the largest growers of pomegranate and supplies both fresh fruit and value-added products all across Australia.
“We have about 110 hectares of pomegranate – about 75,000 trees in total – and our main variety is Wonderful,” Mr Reuveni says. While they do occasionally export some fruit to other markets, he says their focus is “on the growing demand in Australia”.
He says they are currently preparing for harvest, which will begin in March.
“The coming season looks beautiful for us,” he says. “We’re expecting high quality fruit, with a minimum of 16 brix, so we’re looking forward to starting the season.”
While there has been some extreme weather through the region, with hailstorms and heatwaves at different times over the past few months, Mr Reuveni says PomLife has managed the conditions well and that all their fruit is looking good.
“We always put a lot of effort into the quality of our fruit, before, during and after the season,” he says.
“So in the lead up to fruiting, for instance, we can trim our trees in such a way that even on hot days we manage to protect the fruit from excessive heat. A lot of resources go into looking after the trees so we can get the best fruit every season.”
