Date prospects grow

THE Granite Belt might be playing catch-up on a 3000-year-old Chinese industry but experts believe jujubes have the potential to expand across the country.

It's a new, exotic and emerging horticultural industry here in Australia, with West Australian growers the first to jump on board about a decade ago.

Closer to home, Applethorpe's Department of Agriculture Research Facility only began trialling it two years ago.

Senior industry development officer Justin Heaven said there was still much for them to learn about the fruit, more commonly referred to as Chinese dates.

"It's a very new industry in Queensland,” he said.

"It was listed in the top 20-odd emerging industries from the AgriFutures Australia report recently developed.

"There needs to be a lot of work done on which varieties grow where and that's what we're trying to do here.

"We were certainly one of the first in Queensland to have jujubes.”

Mr Heaven said there were also crops in Inglewood, St George and Traveston.

"There's a few people on the Granite Belt that do have them now too,” he said.

"We provided some root stock to the (state) high school as well so they're trialling a few varieties.”

The biggest challenge for the research facility has been figuring out what varieties grow best in the area's cooler climate.

They have Silverhill, Li, Chico, Suimen, Tajan, Redlands and Lang in the ground at the moment.

"We've got about 70 trees in, all up,” Mr Heaven said.

"If you compared ours to St George, well they've been picking fruit for probably three weeks now and we're probably still a couple weeks off picking still.

"Over in WA it's still very much a hobby. There's a lot of small growers, with probably no more than 200 trees, supplying local markets.”

The challenge for the industry was securing root stock at a reasonable price, Mr Heaven said.

But given the dramatic rise in Australia's Asian population, he said there was plenty of room for growth.

"In China it's one of their biggest tree crops they grow,” he said.

"They use it in cold and hot drinks, soups, in cooking. The Chinese believe it has many medicinal benefits. Anything from diabetes to prostate to cancer. They do place great value in its health benefits.”

But it has other beneficial factors, according to Mr Heaven.

He said its ability to grow in challenging climates with limited water made for a good case in the current dry.

"It also has multiple flowerings through the season,” he said.

"So if you get a hail storm there's still a chance for that tree to flower and reset fruit.”

Mr Heaven said they're still some way off knowing how big an industry it could become.

"There certainly needs to be a lot of education to the consumer of what it is and what you do with it,” he said.

"For Stanthorpe, whether it's really suited to colder winters, judgment is still out a bit.

"I feel it certainly does have potential. How big I don't know.”