WANTED: new growers to take advantage of a strong market and breakthroughs in research to produce quality dried tree fruit.

South Australian Dried Tree Fruits Association deputy chairman Kris Werner said it was an exciting time for the industry, which is dominated by apricots with smaller quantities of peaches and pears.

"The market for quality Australian fruit is strong and our local research is helping to produce a better product with reduced growing costs," Mr Werner said.

New apricot varieties, suited to the dried-fruit market and the requirements of mechanised production, have been developed by plant breeders at the South Australian Research and Development Institute.

Growers have undertaken significant plantings of the two varieties released in 2005: riverbrite and river ruby.

Mr Werner said the newer varieties had better drying ratios, giving growers a 50 per cent higher return.

A comparison of gross returns last year found a five-year-old orchard planted at 800 trees a hectare returned $37,000 a hectare for riverbrite apricots cropped at 21 tonnes/ha, compared to traditional varieties such as moorpark at $29,400/ha (15.5 tonnes/ha) and hunter at $25,300/ha (12.3 tonnes/ha).

Mr Werner said the dried tree fruit industry had been concentrated in South Australia, where there was about 150 growers, but there was no reason it could not expand to fruit-growing regions such as Shepparton, Griffith and the Sunraysia.

Production peaked at 3000 tonne about 30 years ago, but has declined in recent years as a result of drought, low water allocations and falling productivity in lower density ageing orchards.

Mr Werner said last year's crop of 525 tonnes and this year's harvest of less than 350 tonnes meant there was room to accommodate "a six or seven-fold increase" without adversely affecting domestic or overseas markets.

As part of a bid to attract new growers, the association will hold its inaugural outlook conference at Berri, next Thursday.

The theme is "Dried tree fruits - why not consider the option?".

Delegates will be able to sample new dried-fruit varieties, discuss agronomic issues with growers, marketing with Sunbeam Foods staff and visit the SARDI research centre at Loxton, a high-density commercial orchard at Pike River and the Angas Park commercial drying yard at Loxton.

  • The one-day conference is free, but attendees must register by phoning (03) 5023 5174 or emailing dshaw-wait@adfa.asn.au