On The Land
22 November, 2025
Grape production grows
THE humble table grape is proving to be a rising crop across the Tablelands and Mareeba Dimbulah area, according to two agriculture production reports.
The “Table grape update 2025”, report by agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank said Australia has achieved its second-best table grape season on record.
It found Australia produced over 230,000 metric tonnes of the fruit in 2024/25 – a 20% increase from the 2023/24 season.
RaboResearch analyst Pia Piggott said the jump in production was thanks to higher yields and younger vineyards reaching full maturity.
Ms Piggott said Australian domestic consumption of table grapes (grapes grown for fresh consumption) rose by 11% in the latest season, while exports reached a five-year high of 148,300 metric tonnes.
Locally, this coincides with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries local quinquennial (every five year) report released late last year.
Dr Geoff Dickinson confirmed that production and revenues achieved by our local producers revealed that while grower numbers had reduced from seven to five, the total area under grapes had multiplied by 1.78% from 223 hectares in 2019 to 397 hectares last year.
Meanwhile, production had almost tripled from 1574 tonnes in 2019 to 4446 tonnes last year.
Revenue from table grape crops also increased from $15.7 million in 2019 to $44.4 million in 2024.
“There’s no doubt about it, the region’s table grape producers are among the top 10 horticulture revenue earners across the Tablelands and Mareeba, Mutchilba and Dimbulah areas, predominantly around Dimbulah,” FNQ Growers president Joe Moro said.
“This is a result of many factors, including the total planted area has nearly doubled since 2019, coupled with strong market prices which has resulted in nett growth over the past five years.”
Currently, one of the region’s largest table grapes producers has one third of the farm’s 300-hectare capacity under table grapes, with 60,000 vines already planted and plans to have the entire property established as a vineyard.
Local table grape crops are harvested over the eight-week August and September period with the remainder of the labour-intensive production year committed to planting, pruning or covering the cropping area to protect the grapes from sunburn.
Unlike other table grape-producing regions in Australia, Far Northen grape vines do not go dormant during the cooler months and grow continuously and need to be pruned twice a year.
