The Australian chestnut industry is set for growth over the next few years, with ongoing research, development and marketing helping to drive demand.
Chestnuts Australia President Brian Casey says the rising popularity of the nut category is also helping generate more interest.
“We are experiencing increased in demand in the nut category, particularly for macadamias, almonds and now also hazelnuts and walnuts. There’s definitely an increasing interest in chestnuts as a result of that,” he says.
“We’ve had a more little investor interest in orchards as well. It’s only small at this stage, but there have been a few enquiries and I think one property was recently purchased by someone with an investment background.”
Chestnuts Australia is also running a number of programs and campaigns to sustainably grow the industry to a point where they can also begin opening up export markets.
“All these other nuts have a substantial export market, so that’s the one thing we need to develop and secure for chestnuts,” Mr Casey says.
“We have had some initial export success and we’re confident we will get demand overseas, but we really need to get much larger volumes for the industry to move in this direction.”
He says that larger volumes will come from a number of the programs and initiatives Chestnuts Australia is currently running, including a new media campaign aimed at first-time consumers.
“Traditional consumers of chestnuts are our strongest market, so people with European and Asian backgrounds who already include chestnuts in their diets. The aim of this year’s campaign is to introduce chestnuts to more everyday Australians who may not have had them before,” he says.
“So it’s about educating consumers on how to peel and use them, then incorporating them into dishes like casseroles and stir fries. We’re getting a lot of traction and good feedback as well as many more enquiries and media coverage.”
He says development of more value-added products could also help the market in Australia grow.
“We’ve only got a small value-adding sector in Australia at the moment, where you have things like peeled nuts, chestnut meal and chestnut flour. I have actually got a business that sells some value-added products and we’re seeing a lot more interest, so there is the potential for these things to help grow the industry.”
The chestnut season in Australia typically runs from mid-March to late-May depending on the varieties, but Mr Casey says this year has been slightly different.
“We had a very early start this year, with some growers having their first harvests at the beginning of March and just wrapping up now with the late season varieties.
He says the weather has affected this year’s crop, with reasonably good rain levels through to late January before an extended dry spell that has lasted up til now.
“The season’s kind of had two halves, first it was wet and then dry and hot and that has affected crop size, so we expect to harvest less than last year,” he says.
“But the good thing is that nut size is up, with the average size a bit larger than normal. The nuts are also slightly lower in moisture, which makes them a bit sweeter and possibly a bit easier to peel, so they’re selling well.
“Overall it’s been a pretty good season, we’re about two-thirds of the way through it now, and I think the dedicated growers are going to be able to say it was a reasonably good year and go onto bigger and better ones.”
He says Chestnuts Australia will continue it’s research, development and marketing efforts across all areas of the industry, with a particular interest in identifying specific chestnut varieties that are popular with consumers and distributing guidelines for post-harvest handling.
“Every year we’re seeing increased demand for more consumer-friendly varieties, so many growers are re-grafting mature trees to the better varieties so they don’t have to plant out,” he says.
“Once they’ve done that, the next step will be expansion of their orchards, so we want to support that and also make sure both the major and smaller growers are managing the post-harvest process effectively to give consumers a great chestnut experience.”
