Clean, safe and highly competitive products
Adelaide is the entry point to the abundant and varied food production regions of South Australia.
South Australia, has one of the world’s purest growing environments.
South Australia benefits from the natural advantages of:
- Long periods of sunshine.
- Reliable seasonal rains.
- Healthy soils.
- Unpolluted waters.
Our
food growing areas are largely isolated from populated areas and
concentrations of heavy industry. These areas, representing approximately
90,000 hectares (225,000 acres), are isolated by distance from 80% of
South Australia’s population, who live in the capital city of Adelaide.
Unlike many countries, our growing environments are not contaminated by chemicals such as dioxin.
Australia protects this competitive advantage with regulated health and food safety monitoring systems, which cover product quality, safety and hygiene.
South Australia’s growing areas include:
- Orchards, dairy pastures and vineyards of the temperate Adelaide Hills.
- Extensive horticultural and vegetable production areas of the Adelaide Plains.
- Warm and well-watered fruit and vegetable-growing haven of the Riverland, watered by Australia’s largest river system, the Murray.
- Wide-stretching grain areas of the Mid North.
- Lush grazing lands of the South East.
- Thousands of kilometres of clean ocean which contain pristine fishing areas and the centre of Australia’s aquaculture industry.
Many ingredients make up South Australia’s success with horticulture and aquaculture – and most combine natural advantages with human skills and technology.
The ability to source diverse water
supplies and to tap the natural benefits of long hours of sunshine – and
combining this with sophisticated greenhouse climatic control – has
built a vigorous horticultural industry.
The four main areas of horticultural activity span very different environments:
- The Murraylands region which draws much of its irrigation from Australia’s largest river and enjoys the nation’s longest periods of unbroken sunshine.
- The Northern Plains area centred around Virginia which has Australia’s largest concentration of greenhouse production and a consistent water supply
- The Adelaide Hills , which is the traditional market garden area – having several microclimates exploited particularly effectively by winegrape growers and orchardists and benefiting from good rainfall and supplies of natural spring water.
- The South East , region is a cool climate region with volcanic sandy loam soils. Water is sourced from underground aquifers.
The differing seasonal ripening conditions between these regions means that in many cases, a continuous supply of product is available for export.
Aquaculture
The two designated aquacultural zones extend West from the metropolitan coast to the Great Australian Bight. This is the national centre for this industry, making effective use of the cold clean seas ideal for premium meat development and taste – plus a wealth of skills provided by the fishing industry, research institutions and significant investment.
The Southern Zone
activity centres around Southern Ocean Rock Lobster – considered the
best Australian species and most prized by Asian markets. This industry
has an annual turnover of around A$230 million and is one of the world’s
best managed, with a strong focus on research, regulation and resource
protection. The main ports in this zone are at Port MacDonnell, Beachport,
Robe, Cape Jaffa and Kingston.
Successful fish farming of Atlantic salmon also occurs in these clean waters, the fish being transported to the Adelaide Hills processor for smoking and packing.
The Northern Zone centres on Kangaroo Island, Pondalowie Bay and Port Lincoln for lobster; Coffin Bay for oysters and Port Lincoln and the far West Coast for Greenlip Abalone, Western Pacific Prawns and Southern Bluefin Tuna.
Port Lincoln is the centre of Australia’s tuna fishing fleet and the industry’s processing companies who operate sophisticated farms which nurture and prepare the catch for export.
On Kangaroo Island, the pristine pond systems are used for farming marron – a freshwater crustacean with the highest tail muscle to total body ratio by weight of all its species.
This highly regulated industry practices all relevant QA and safety systems and accesses the most advanced technology and research through dedicated institutions and industry bodies.
Links To Other Relevant Sites
Acknowledgements
- Compiled by Shirley Sylvia PIRSA Loxton.
- Additional regional and crop information from PIRSA (Chris Salter, Mark Bartetzko.)
- Bob Peake, David Pocock, Sue Sweeney, Peter Gallasch (SARDI) and other published references including 'A Buyers Guide to South Australian Fruit' by Cameron Turner.
- Statistics and maps sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- Weather data from Australian Weather Bureau.
- Fisheries information from South Australian Fishing Industry Council.
