South Australia has a long history of apple growing, starting in the Adelaide Hills in the 1860’s. It produces around 10% of Australia’s apple production, predominantly Cripps Pink (sold as Pink Lady®), Royal Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith, although there is a strong trend towards planting newer varieties of Rockit®, MiApple®, Red Love, Jazz™, Kanzi™ and Envy™, with an estimated 15% of planted area growing newer varieties in 2017.
South Australian fresh apple exports have been increasing over the past 3 years and processed apple juice and dried apples are also exported.
There are currently about 1.5 million apple trees in South Australia, grown by around 60 apple growers, of which about 40 growers primarily produce apples; the remainder produce apples with other mixed enterprises. Most apple growers in SA (80 percent) have small holdings of less than twenty hectares; the remaining 20 percent farming in excess of twenty hectares. Apple orchards in SA are almost all family-owned and run.
Adelaide Hills
The Adelaide Hills regions is the State’s most important and longest established growing area, with 80 percent of the growers. Centred on the Lenswood Valley, apple growing in this area is characterised by good clay/loam soils and a rainfall of around 1000mm annually. While being of 34 degrees of latitude south it has a climate moderated by around 500m of altitude and South-westerly weather patterns.
Source: Aussie Apples https://www.aussieapples.com.au/about/#region-sa
Pick a Pink lady Weekend
A popular annual event each May gives visitors to Lenswood, the opportunity to experience the beauty of the Adelaide Hills in the peak of autumn, to enjoy fresh Pink Lady apples picked straight from the tree, to learn about apple production straight from the grower and to sample apple produce.
