'A few issues': Farmer reveals the weather hiccup that's impacted avocadoes this season

Minmore Fruits in Kumbia, Queensland, is a family-run business.

The team behind some of Australia's best avocadoes and stone fruits is Tony Dugdell and his wife, Mia, as well as Matthew and his wife, Lauren.

It all began when their parents purchased a produce store, later expanding into farming.

Hass avocados are the company's main business at the moment, ahead of stone fruit season, which kicks off in October.

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"We do have some other avocados, but Hass is the main one, but then we do stone fruit," Tony says.

Stone fruit is "quite a specialty when it comes to farming", he explains.

"As soon as there are flowers on trees, we're flower thinning," he says.

"We only allow it to sit anywhere up to about 100 to 140 pieces of fruit. So then that fruit gets more nutrients and more size and more color and more flavour.

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"That's where we're probably different. We're picking our fruit to be eaten tomorrow or the next day.

"So nine times out of 10, if it's picked today, it's packed today and on a shelf tomorrow or the following day."

They also pick some of their fruit "forward" so it "slows to ripeness" so it can be eaten within a few days.

Touch wood, Queensland weather hasn't been too bad for Minmore Fruits.

"We've had a few early thaws, which have caused a few issues with avocados, but they seem to have settled down now," he says.

"I'd like a little bit more cold weather, and when I say cold weather, I mean temperatures between five and 10 degrees.

"That helps set fruit as well. The stones in the trees need to go to sleep.

"Persimmons, stone fruits go to sleep, so the ground temperatures need to cool down, and it helps with soil division and fruit set and flavour and everything, getting cool weather."

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Hass avocado season has been a good one for Minmore Fruits, with production set to wrap up in the next few weeks, "probably in the middle of September this year."

"We start avocados in June, and we like to be finished before we do our stone fruit."

Hass avocadoes are currently selling for $1.80 each at Coles and Woolies.

And while avocadoes and stone fruit are vastly different, what they do share is their popularity with Aussie customer. Thankfully, it's shaping up to be a stellar stone fruit season, with peaches and nectarines both in good shape.

Tony personally prefers yellow varieties, which have more "acidity" than the white varieties.

The top tip for selecting good stone fruit is not the smell, but the colour around the stem at the end of the fruit.

"Nine times out of 10, if they've got good colour down and around to the stem end, it means they've seen plenty of sun.

"Sun means flavour and the sweetness of it, so they need to see the sun. You need sunny weather to provide sugars in fruit. So just look right into that stem end and make sure it's nice and colourful."

Tony's biggest stone fruit nemesis, aside from weather concerns, is fruit bats, which he explains "don't eat fruit unless they're hungry".

"They'd rather eat the nectar out of the trees," Tony explains of the damage they can do.

Fruit bats are mostly a problem during dry years, and the Minmore Fruits team resorts to such things as flood lights to keep them away.

Sometimes he and his kids even chase them away.

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"We get the kids and say, 'It's that time again.' And they all go running around screaming their heads off."

This year, Minmore Fruits will be part of the Kingaroy BaconFest 2025 Farmgate to Festival Regional Tour event, where you can learn about their fruit grading technology.

It will be held on the weekend of August 15 and 16 at Memorial Park, and, as well as local food growers, will also feature displays by celebrity chef Alastair McLeod and a concert headlined by Troy Cassar-Daley.

Also at the event will be Beauvale Australian Whites Stud sheep farm from Brookland, Clovely Estate winery from Moffatdale, Chrissy Trees 4 U from Benair and Bunya Range Lamb at the foothills of the Bunya Mountains.

Entry to Kingaroy BaconFest starts from $10, and tickets are available now on the festival website www.kingaroybaconfest.com.au

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