Growers feel heat

Gourmet Fresh Farms manager Damien Rigali says recent heat caused lettuce losses of up to 30 per cent.

While hordes of sun-worshippers flock to beaches, the impact of WA's record January dry-spell is causing headaches for growers, who face wilting produce and greater demands on precious water.

Recent heatwaves have caused significant fruit and vegetable losses because of scorching and sunburn - and it's going to get hotter, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

Current projections by the CSIRO and the bureau point to higher temperatures more often over the coming decades.

"Over the past 10 years, high temperature records have outnumbered low temperature records by a ratio of between two and three to one," BOM scientist Dr Blair Trewin said.

Gourmet Fresh Farms manager Damien Rigali said Perth's sweltering heat in the past two weeks had caused lettuce losses of up to 30 per cent.

"Anything over 40C is going to be a problem, and there were three over 40-degree days a couple of weeks ago that caused a lot to burn," he said.

Mr Rigali said he was combating the heat by fine-tuning his water use efficiency.

"We will assess our irrigation efficiency," he said. "We are working with the Department of Agriculture, which is helping to determine what we can do better.

"This winter, we are going to nail it on the head and get a better coverage - if we can get the right amount of water out quicker, there are ways around heat damage, but any extreme heat is definitely going to stuff things up.

"We are expecting another heatwave in February, so we'll see how we go with that, and next year we will get our water efficiency up to standard."

Carabooda grower Leo Canzirri said the heat brought out fungal diseases and burned fruit, so when the heatwave hit two weeks ago they braved the heat and picked as many as they could. "For tomatoes, the sun burns the fruit, but if the crop is good and healthy the foliage can protect it," he said.

Mr Canzirri said drip irrigation had been increased throughout the day and overnight to maintain soil moisture for the crops.

AUSVEG's communications manager, Hugh Tobin, said the recent hot spells had been hazardous for the industry throughout the supply chain.

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