13/01/2026
Welcome back to an exciting 2026.
So wanting to know what the markets doing?
The year has barely started, and the weather is – as usual – playing a major role in fresh produce supply this week.
In fruit, the central theme is: heavy rain in northern Queensland over the past month. This has almost put the kibosh on the mango season. January/February is usually the peak of the Honeygold season, but most of the crop was lost to rain and flood. There are KPs on the market, but nowhere as cheap as they were pre-Christmas – and likely to finish up by the end of the month. Unless some growing regions in southern QLD and northern NSW were able to save their crops – in which case we may see a bump in February. That’s also the time when minor varieties like Palmer and Keitt pop up for a few weeks.
Other tropical fruit supply has also suffered, especially pineapples (nada) and bananas (more expensive) – but papaya and passionfruit are reasonably priced.
Don’t get us started on apples (stratospheric) – but then, the new apple season is only weeks away, starting with Royal Gala in early February from Queensland’s Granite Belt. Luckily, they were spared the heavy rain that plagued the rest of the state.
Berry supply across all varieties should be ample next week – mostly from VIC (assuming the heatwave doesn’t create havoc), with additional blueberries from Coffs.
Closer to home, the Vella’s in Freemans Reach are picking seedless watermelon: expect to pay around $1.75 a kilo for a 5-6kg piece.
Grapes have come down in price by around 30% compared with pre-Christmas – they will fall further over the coming weeks.
Lastly, stone fruit supply across the board – including cherries – remains fairly strong, and prices are reasonable.
The central theme for vegetables is the exact opposite of Queensland’s pain: a 3–4-day heatwave across SA, VIC and NSW that has pushed some prices up already – especially for broccoli, cauliflowers, some leafy greens, wombok. Having said that, most other vegetables remain well-priced – and often cheaper than in December, especially green beans, snow peas, sugarsnap, corn, capsicum (reds are still $14.90 in Coles), cucumbers, zucchini, lettuces, pumpkin and eggplant. Prices of onions and potatoes are finally starting to drop, after a horror show for most of 2025.
