A continent with entry fees to pick-your-own farms but without frigo plants and 'Elsanta': Strawberry cultivation Down under | Eintritt für selbstpflücke, ein kontinent ohne Frigopflanzen und 'Elsanta': Erdbeeranbau in Australien

The flourishing Australian strawberry industry benefits from a range of favourable climates as well as access to resources and is characterised by a high intensity of farming. Large yields in excess of 30 t/ha are similar to those in California, in the almost self-sufficient Australian market where imports and exports of fresh strawberry fruit are negligible. The aim of the Australian Better Berries Program is to increase production from currently 40,000 t on ca. 1,300 ha to 71,000 t by the year 2008. Based on 20 mio. inhabitants, this is equivalent to an increase from 2.0 kg to ca. 2.7 kg on a per head basis. This resembles today's German strawberry consumption of ca. 2.7 kg per head and a yearly basis of 100,000 t from an area of 10,420 ha in Germany plus ca. 120,000 t of strawberry imports. Australia's three main growing regions are centred in Victoria in the southeast, Perth in Western Australia, and in Queensland in the northeast. There, 44,000-66,000 runner plants/ha are grown in single or double rows in black or silver plastic mulch suspended over fertigation pipes. After morning sale over the telephone, fruits are delivered to supermarkets in distant cities by refrigerated trucks. Day-neutral strawberry cultivars such as the Californian 'Selva', 'Camarosa', and 'Camino Real' varieties and the Floridian 'Sweet Charlie' and 'Festival' dominate. Short-day Australian cultivars such as 'Rubygem', 'Sugarbaby', 'Brighteyes', and 'Harmony' from the Queensland breeding program and other day-neutral cultivars from the southern breeding program in Victoria increased their market share from 8% to 10% over the last 3 years. Prime goals of the northern (Queensland) breeding program are short-day varieties with early ripening and a yield of >1.2 kg/plant. The southern breeding program (Victoria) breeds for both short-day and day-neutral varieties as well as a long harvest period in excess of 10 weeks. While the Australian breeding goals of external fruit quality such as large, firm, and glossy fruit resemble those in Germany, the inner fruit quality, such as firm flesh and sweet taste due to low acidity, differ. © Springer-Verlag 2005.