Chestnut growers in southwest WA have wrapped up harvest for another year and are tallying up the cost of a low production year due to a lack of rainfall over summer. It's prompted some to rethink their operations and to not put all their nuts into one basket.
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00:00In what is usually a cracking harvest, John and Linda Stanley are sorting through slim
00:07pickings.
00:09We normally work on a 12 tonne crop.
00:12This year, because of the drought and the heat, we're down to 1.7 tonne, which is about
00:1814% of what we expected.
00:20The couple own a 70 acre chestnut farm near Nannup.
00:25They've experienced a major drop in production.
00:28Look at the state of the nuts, the lack of water means they've never popped up.
00:32Oh it's devastating to come out and see these on the ground.
00:37Now they're weighing up how to future proof their business for climate variability.
00:42You've got to think outside the box, you've got to think of different ways of growing
00:47and developing your business.
00:48Grow chestnuts and send them to the market.
00:50They've already been doing that by offering farm tours and selling a diverse range of
00:55products and they've recently been recognised as being among the top agritourism businesses
01:01in the world.
01:02And we're focused more on the Singaporean and Malay markets because they're interested
01:09in nature and interested in where the food comes from and interested in how food is produced.
01:17They're also working on developing local interest in agritourism.
01:21I think it's important that all of us understand where our food comes from and understand the
01:26process of making food and especially in climate change.
01:30It's a lot to nut out.