Australia-Broccoli Harvest.

AUSTRALIA-BROCCOLI HARVEST.

The vegetable renowned for its health benefits, broccoli, is flourishing on the Granite Belt with a recent swing in prices to favour the Queensland growers.

Reno Piovesan and his team have been picking broccoli for the past few weeks with average output around 4000-5000 eight kilogram boxes per week.

The breakeven price for the Piovesan’s is $18 a box with prices ranging as far as $11-$50 a box.

"You don’t like benefiting form other people’s misfortune, but a lot of broccoli is grown in Victoria and was wiped out with the hot weather," Mr Piovesan said.

"As a result we saw prices rise to $40-$50 a box."

When Queensland Country Life visited the property on the north of Stanthorpe, the Piovesan’s were having a quiet week with an output of around 2000 boxes.

"We’ve got a limited window of opportunity for selling with the Lockyer Valley coming on in April, but they are a bit earlier this year," Mr Piovesan said.

"Therefore I’m finishing off early instead of trying to compete with them.

"I’m just happy to sign the dotted line when it’s at $20 a box."

The majority of Piovesan’s broccoli is sold through the Brisbane Markets, using local transport company Granite Belt Fruit Freighters.

"The Sydney Markets tend to fluctuate too much."

Once the broccoli is picked its taken to the shed on farm and washed with chlorine to remove any disease and prevent browning.

The broccoli is then packed in ice to bring down the temperature and increase shelf life.

"Even when its been out in the sun and heated up, once we run it through the wash and put it under ice, the temperature comes back to -2 degrees in half a hour," Mr Piovesan said.

"We can hold it on site for up to four days before sending it to markets, where it usually has a shelf life of a week."