North-West Tasmanian poppy growers are facing an anxious six-week wait with experts predicting a bumper crop.
Poppy Growers Tasmania chief executive Keith Rice said growers had experienced a top growing season but the time to celebrate was after the harvest.
The poppy harvest is already underway in the north but starts later in the NW in early February.
“All seasons have challenges, but this one has been pretty good it was reasonably wet during late sowing then it got dry quickly in October, and those magnificent rains came early in November,” Mr Rice said.
“It suited most agriculture crops and suited the poppies down to the ground”.
Mr Rice said the season was set up for the best crop in years.
“Mother Nature has smiled on us right up to this time,” Mr Rice said.
“Farmers are anxiously waiting because they have done all they can do now.
“It’s an excellent feeling when the harvest gets underway, but it’s a far better feeling when the last paddock is harvested.
“We’ve still got until the end of February to go until the harvest is over.”
The value of the crop is determined by the yield, and farmers get paid on the alkaloid percentage in the crop.
Mr Rice said growers went through some challenging times as the demand for poppy crops had waned.
However, while fewer poppies get planted the Tasmanian industry had seen incremental productivity improvements since its inception, and more kilograms were produced per hectare today.
Poppies were in global oversupply six years ago as changes in prescription drug laws in other parts of the world adversely affected market demand.
Due to overuse of prescription drugs, the poppy crop was arguably at an unsustainable level in 2012-13.
Mr Rice said Tasmania’s crop is being managed at a sustainable level.
“This is the new norm where we’ve got increasing productivity, and we should not be looking at the area of the crop as a measure of its success we should be looking kilograms per hectare," he said.
“The industry is well developed and well founded in Tasmania, and even with all of this readjustment in demand over the last few years we’re still looking at Australia supplying about 50 per cent of the world demand.”
There were about 450 poppy growing licenses in Tasmania.
From Sassafras to Smithton represents one of the prime farming areas to grow poppies in the State, producing about 40 per cent of the licenses.
Tasmania’s poppy crop is worth up to about $200 million a year with a farmgate value of $50m.
